Wishes of the Heart
by WinterGuardianAngel24
Summary: IMPORTANT NOTICE, PLEASE CLICK ON PROFILE TO SEE.
1. Ch 1 Halfhearted Wishes

**I've been working on this off and on, but for some reason I don't feel like this idea will leave me alone until I just get it out somewhere other than in my folder. I hope you enjoy it. Please R&R!**

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Katekyo Hitman Reborn (I do not own!)

Wishes of the Heart

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Chapter 1 Half-Hearted Wishes

Hi!

I'm Lily Hong, and I…

Am completely, utterly, horribly, and unbearably lost.

F my life.

You see, all I did was walk like 15 feet (I swear!) from the shop my parents, older sister, and little brother were looking around in when I turned around and noticed that _every_ alleyway looked the same.

Who knew the close knit buildings in a random spot in France could be so maze like, go figure!

"Ah, for the love of-!" I sighed exasperatedly and sat down roughly on a nearby street bench.

Really, all I wanted was some fresh air.

Suddenly an old lady plopped down on the bench next to me.

"Jiminy Crickets!" I shouted as I nearly jumped out of my skin. Jeez, I must be really out of it if I didn't see her walking up.

"Hello there young lady," The lady said kindly…ish.

Damn, this was a creepy old lady. Like, I've got nothing against old people, but this lady just gave me the heebie-jeebies.

"I apologize for giving you a fright." If the old lady knew of my discomfort then she hid it quite well.

Wait a sec. 'Gave me a fright'? Who the hell used that anymore? Wait, wait, wait. She's old. Of course she'd use some out of date phrase.

"Er… 'Sup…" Opps, I switched back to English. "I mean hello."

"Would you be more comfortable speaking in your native tongue?" The lady asked.

"I'm cool with whatever." Perhaps I should be a little more polite. She _is_ an elder, no matter how similar she looks to Snow White's transformed evil step-mother. Curse you Disney Princess Movies for teaching me that ugly old women are evil!

The lady nodded. "Well, let's get down to business."

Excuse me?

"I'm here to grant that wish of yours," the lady said with a smile.

In all my years of school and speaking a fair number of languages, provided me the intellectual response of, "Eh?"

"Your wish three weeks and four days ago," the woman continued.

"I made a wish?" I think I would have remembered that. But I'll keep that comment to myself.

The creepy old lady giggled. "Correct! And I'm going to grant it for you!"

_Ooooh_. I see what's going on. This lady is senile.

I smiled kindly. "Do you want me to help you find your family ma'am?"

The old lady rolled her eyes. "I'm able to take of myself young lady. I'm not senile. Besides I only came here to grant your wish."

Riiiiiiiight. I nodded and continued smiling. "Okay, okay. We can wait here for them." I said as I patted the lady's knee.

The old lady huffed, but continued as enthusiastically as before. "Don't you remember? You wished that you could go to the past and meet Vongola Primo!"

Vongola Primo…Vongola Primo…Why did that sound so familiar…

"Oh! You mean Katekyo Hitman Reborn! I just finished re-reading the parts of the Shimon Arc where Giotto appeared!"

"That's it! That's it!" The old lady clapped her hands. "Keep going!"

"Um…" I scrunched my face as I tried to think. Then it dawned on me. "Oh yeah. I said I kind of wished to meet him and the rest of his guardians. But I didn't really mean it."

"But it's a fantastic wish! Aren't you glad you get the chance!" The lady cheered.

God, I really wanted to run away.

I laughed nervously.

"I'm even upgrading the wish for you!" The lady continued. "You're going to live with them for a while and help them!"

Pardon?

I… was going… to help… a fictional character…?

Okay, now we've crossed borderline of believable and tolerable insanity.

"Look, thanks…um…ma'am, but I have to go back to my family now, so…uh…bye." I got and started to walk away as quickly as I could.

"You'll see them later. You've got to get going quickly or the sun will set and you'll be wondering around in the dark!" The lady called after me.

Walk away quickly Lily, just _walk __**away**_.

I think I might have heard the lady sigh, but I'm not turning around to check.

I looked around. There had to be _some_ landmark I could identify with.

"Have fun!" The scary old lady called again.

Don't look around-

Holy $#^*! Since when was there a giant hole in the ground here!

Oh dear god, what have I gotten myself into?

And then all went black.

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I looked around carefully as I walked down the unfamiliar street.

Well this was just dandy.

First I was falling to my imminent death only to suddenly appear in some random forest in some god forsaken place.

Not only do I have _no_ idea where I am, but I am also unable to communicate with any of the local towns' folk.

It sounds like their words have some similarities to French, so I can assume that they have a Latin heritage. However, with my luck, it was going to be the one of the languages I hadn't started to learn yet.

And that would be Italian.

I would say Spanish, but if the skin tone of the people and the structure of the buildings told me anything…

Anyways, I knew about two words (and _that_ was thanks to KHR). And that was ciao and…Arg! Now I can't remember what that other one was!

I sat down next to a tree in frustration.

I absolutely positively _refuse_ to even _consider_ that I had somehow been transported to Italy. And there is no f-ing way that I'm in the past…of a cartoon…

Okay. There had to be a _logical_ reason why I ended up here. Perhaps I had taken a wrong turn while running away from that lady, and while I was running with my eyes closed I had somehow ended up in this village…where everyone speaks Italian…despite still being in France… That made sense…right?

I slapped my forehead and groaned.

I'm doomed.

With a sigh, I let myself fall onto my back. This just wasn't my day.

BOOM!

Okay, I'm not a rocket scientist or anything, but I'm pretty sure a low tech village like this doesn't have anything that could make _that_ big of an explosion… Or other noises, like that popping sound that is suspiciously similar to those toy guns… Or make that many people start screaming…

And _no_, I am _not_ in denial.

I am going to just walk away now. This has nothing to do with me, and there's a good chance I could die.

I stood up with the full intention of walking as far away from the village as I could, but then I saw a young little boy running down the road leading out of the village. The look of pure horror and fear was plastered on his face and he was crying.

A man with a sickening looking knife was chasing the child with an evil smile. And he was gaining fast.

Damn my soft spot for all things young and adorable.

I sprinted forward, slapped the knife away, and kicked the evil-henchman-of-some-evil-force in the jaw.

Thank you~ multiple self-defense and human anatomy classes, as well as my slightly irrational paranoia of the world that led me to taking said several fighting and self-defense classes.

I kicked the guy one last time in the stomach. The dude flew back into the wall and was knocked unconscious.

Well…that was a little freaky…

Since when did I have the strength of Godzilla?...

There was more screaming and the sight of more children as well as the women of the villagers running away.

I grabbed fistfuls of hair in frustration. "FINE! Fine, fine, fine! I'll do my best to save them!" I shouted out loud in irritation. God I needed to get rid of my conscience.

I ran up to the nearest bad guy and engaged in defending this random town in the middle of nowhere.

Several bruises, cuts, and scrapes (not from falling, but from bullets [Bullets? _Bullets?_ Who the hell carries a gun in broad daylight? Just what has my life come down to?]) later I was panting behind a corner while I looked around for more of this outrageously large street gang.

I saw a man in strange foreign clothes and a man with vivid red hair (no way it was natural, it had to be dyed!) take down some men, but both of them had yet to notice the man aiming at their backs behind them.

"Look out!" I shouted. And in a rush of adrenaline (why else would I _willingly_ take a bullet for a stranger) I pushed the two of them down just in time to take the bullet in my gut.

Great.

My day just couldn't get any better could it?

You know how in movies the person who gets shot will be bleeding a lot, but they have enough coherency to check on their precious ones, and they don't really look like they're in that much pain, before either blacking out or dying?

Well that is a big f-ing LIE!

It f-ing HURTS!

No way in hell would I be able to smile for a friend or family! Screw that I wouldn't even be able to notice if they were next to me in the first place.

_Ithurtsithurtsithurts_!

And then all faded to black…again.

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**Poor Lily. Well what did you think?**


	2. Ch 2 Nothing like a present in the past

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**I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

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Chapter 2 Nothing Like a Present in the Past

With the Vongola First Generation.

"We've been under a greater number of attacks since our vigilante group ended up getting grouped in as a mafia family," G grumbled.

"We _have_ become busier as of late," Asari agreed with a chuckle.

Giotto smiled softly at his friends. "Thanks for all your hard work."

G snorted. "Like we would do anything else. Besides, you've had a lot on your plate because of all of this too."

Giotto chuckled lightly.

"Giotto!" Knuckles barged into the office looking panicked.

"What is it Knuckles?" Giotto prompted.

"The village nearby is being attacked," the priest informed his boss quickly.

Not a second later, all three men were standing and rushing out the door. Knuckles quickly followed suit.

"What's the situation?" G asked as they ran to the stables and grabbed their own horses.

"I'm not sure what family, but the informant told me that some stranger is defending the towns' people," Knuckles informed the rest of his colleagues.

G frowned. "A stranger? Do you have a name?"

"No," Knuckles shook his head. "Apparently he can't speak the same language. But this person seems to be extremely strong. But I'm worried that even he won't be able to hold out much longer with the number of enemies."

"Then we should hasten. We wouldn't want the town's savior to die because we were tardy, now would we?" Giotto urged his steed to quicken its pace.

When Giotto and the rest reached the town they split into two groups and dashed off to take care of the rest of the attacking family. Asari and G went off one way and made quick work of taking care of their share, but just when they thought they should rejoin the other group, someone shouted something unintelligible.

It wasn't till after the gun shot and G had hit the ground that he realized that what the person had shouted was in English. But he didn't waste any time dwelling on that thought, he pulled out his gun and shot the cowardly enemy straight through the heart, then turned to his and Asari's savior to check on him. Only it wasn't a 'him'. But he didn't have time to think about that right now as the person was bleeding profusely. He curse and picked the person up.

"We need to find Knuckles quickly," Asari muttered as the two ran toward the other side of the town. He glanced at the girl in G's arms who was grimacing in pain, even when unconscious.

Finally spotting the priest the two called out. Knuckles ran up to meet them when he saw the situation.

"This doesn't look good," the minister muttered as he pulled out the bullet. "She's lost a lot of blood and that bullet caused a bit of internal damage."

G swore under his breath. "Can't you take care of this?"

"I'm already on it." Knuckles didn't bother to point out that he had started healing this girl before G had even set her on the ground.

"I guess the rest of you are done as well-" Giotto narrowed his eyes as he took in the situation. "Is this the person the informant told you about?"

"It seems so," Knuckles said without looking up.

"What happened? Who found him?" Giotto turned to his other two guardians so that he wouldn't break Knuckles' concentration. All he could see of the person were their legs.

"We found _her_," G told his friend, emphasizing the female part. "She pushed us out of the way and took the bullet instead."

Giotto nodded. "I see."

Knuckles sighed wearily and pulled away from the stranger. "That's going to be the best I can do. She'll need a lot of rest and proper nutrition."

"So she'll pull through?" Asari asked. He sighed from relief when Knuckles nodded with small smile.

"Let's take her back with us," Giotto told the group. "We can provide her with lodging until she gets better as thanks."

The other three agreed and carried the girl of the mansion. After they had shut the door, Giotto decided to gather whatever information about the girl he could and decide who should watch over her and wait for her to wake up.

"So did any of you find out what language she speaks? What about her name or why she came here?" The blond asked.

Asari shook his head. "It wasn't any language I could identify. Though, she only spoke a few words before she pushed us out of the way. And we were a little busy for introductions."

"I think she might have been speaking English," G offered.

"I heard from the other villagers that it sounded like she spoke multiple languages," Knuckles informed the group. "Apparently she arrived on foot through the forest, but like I said earlier, no one was able to communicate with her so this girl's name is unknown."

Giotto hummed in thought.

"Hey Giotto," G said slowly. "You don't think this girl has anything to do with that weird lady from the Cassora Family at the ball two weeks ago, do you?"

Primo frowned a little. "I'm not completely sure. I couldn't really understand that woman when she went off, so I wouldn't be able to say. Anyways, we need to decide who should watch-"

A scream resounded from inside the room and the four burst inside to see the girl staring at the mirror in horror.

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*&^*&#!&%! And a lot of other unintelligible things crossed my mind as I started to wake up.

My side felt like shit and the rest of me felt like I've been plowed over by a steroid induced football player.

I opened my eyes and looked around, blinking out the bright light. I don't recognize this room. Did I end up back at the hotel? No, the style is different. I give my compliments to whoever decorated this room, though. The Victorian style was put together quite nicely. You would usually see a few decorations that didn't match the rest of the room, but the designer had done a very good job with this one.

I shook my head to get my thoughts back on track. This was not the time to be appreciating the finer arts of home décor. I pushed myself out of the large bed and looked around. Maybe I passed out while looking for the rest of my family, and then some (hopefully) kind stranger took me in and took care of me. That could be it…right?...

Movement in the corner caught my eye. It was a mirror and the person inside did _not_ make me happy.

I gripped the sides of the reflective pane and screamed bloody murder.

It wasn't true right?

I was hallucinating! I had to be!

Because there's no way that girl with raven hair and green eyes is me! Impossible!

But when I moved so did the girl in the looking glass.

The door behind me burst open.

My eyes widened as I took in the sight of the first person with a familiar priest like garb, which lead me to scream again.

"What's wrong? Is she under attack?" Another person asked hurriedly.

I turned to see a horribly familiar tattoo and red hair and screamed again. My eyes zoomed to the person next to him in old Japanese clothing and a let out another scream. And one last scream as I took in the gravity defying hair of the last man.

I backed into the wall, hyperventilated as I my brain started to fully registering just who was in front of me. And to try to make myself wake up from this dream (for surely, there's no other reason four members of the Vongola First Generation would be in front of me) I slapped myself across the face, hard.

That got everyone in the room to stop moving and yelling. All four men directed their gaze at me.

Okay. That hurt. Maybe that slap wasn't the brightest idea.

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"(English) Why didn't I wake up? This is a dream, it _has_ to be. Am I in a coma? I'm not dead, then my parents would be here. (French) Maybe I'm hallucinating. Yeah, that's it. I knew I shouldn't have trusted Amy (German) and eaten those damn snails! They're a bunch of bacteria cells for Christ's sake!" Lily clutched her head in thought. She didn't even realize in her hysteria that that she was flipping between languages like her sister went through TV channels. "(Korean) This isn't real. This isn't happening. I am _not_ seeing Vongola Primo and three of his guardians! And I am _not_ in Italy! (Japanese) There must be a perfectly logical reason as to why I'm seeing this. What's that trick to wake yourself up in dream again? Oh! That's right, you have to kill yourself! Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! (English) Aaaaaaw! How did I even end up in this situation?"

"Scusi." Lily looked up to the 'imaginary' Giotto standing right in front of her. "Parli Italiano?"

'_The hell?..._' Lily studied the man, only partially concealing the horror and shock his face presented, before answering. "Parlez-vous français? Or preferably, do you speak English?"

"Yes, I can speak English," imaginary Giotto said with a smile. "How is your wound? Your screaming gave us quite a scare. You seem to be in a bit of shock. Are you alright?"

"My wound…? Oh yeah I was shot." The young girl looked down and fingered the bandaging. It was a little sensitive, but alright overall. She straightened herself against the wall, keeping a close eye on the four men. "I'm fine in that retrospect."

Their looks told Lily that they were confused with her dialect.

'Imaginary' Asari walked forward. "(Japanese) Can you speak my native tongue?"

The young girl frowned a little. She was still a little slow with Japanese. "A little bit. But I have to talk slower."

Imaginary Asari smiled and nodded. "I wanted to thank you for helping not only the village, but us as well."

Imaginary G walked forward at this. "Why don't we all just agree to speak Japanese when we're around each other?"

Lily clicked her tongue. "I guess this is a good time as any to get better," she muttered more to herself than the others.

G (who she was _obviously_ hallucinating about) nodded. "I also want to thank you for back there. You probably just saved my life."

"Are you sure you're alright?" imaginary Knuckles asked her. "You still look a little pale. Why don't you lie back down and rest some more."

'_Wouldn't _you_ be a little pale and shocked if _you_ saw fictional characters coming to life right before your eyes? Not only that, but if your hair, and more importantly, your _eyes_ had suddenly changed colors without your knowledge? But I probably shouldn't voice this aloud_.'

"I'm…fine…I'm just a little freaked out is all…" The other four looked confused again so Lily decided to expand her answer. "I'm pretty sure I'm seeing things right now, so I'm trying to keep myself from hyperventilating or going into shock. This is obviously an illusion or something and I need to wake up."

"An illusion? Did Daemon do something?" G pondered aloud.

"No, a freaky old self-proclaimed fairy slash witch person, who I'm not entirely sure exists for real either, did." This reply only earned her another round of confused looks. "I must have fallen into a ditch and hit my head just the right way, because obviously I can't be seeing who I think I'm seeing."

"How long are you going to keep telling yourself that?"

Lily looked over the four men to see a young woman standing in the doorway. She didn't recognize her face, but her voice…

Wait a sec!

"You!" Lily blurted. And then she got really, really mad. "This is all your doing, isn't it?" She demanded.

"You're from the ball!" Giotto exclaimed.

"It's good to see you again Vongola Primo," The lady said politely with a short curtsy then turned to the other girl. "I _told_ you I was sending you here."

Lily ran forward, grabbed the front of the woman's collar, and started shaking her violently. "What did you do to me? Why is my hair this color? _Why are my eyes a different color_? Why am I seeing things? Where is my family? Get me out of here!"

The lady laughed despite being shaken violently. "I brought you to Vongola Primo of course. Silly, can't you see? You family is still in France, shopping around. And as for your eyes and hair, well that happened sometime during transport. I'm not completely sure why though. I'll have to go check. And you can't leave until you finish up here."

Lily's thinning patience finally snapped. "DIE!" She tried to land a roundhouse kick on the woman, but she dodged. Lily continued to attack her, determined to land a nice solid blow.

"Lily, calm down!" The fairy/witch/magician or whatever she was pleaded.

"I'll calm down when I've killed you!" No way was the angered girl going to back down on this one.

"But I have to tell you, your conditions for being here!" The woman called out as she dodged more of the attacks.

"Conditions be damned! Send me back _now_!" The now raven haired girl yelled at the woman without decreasing her attacks.

"I can't!"

That made the younger girl freeze. "What do you mean, you _can't_?"

"I can't send you back till you complete the conditions of your wish," the lady explained.

"Huh?"

"Well you see, I told you that I bumped up your wish request. So that means you have to help the Vongola First Generation with something important," the woman explained.

"I didn't wish for this!" Lily insisted. "Geez! If you were going to grant one of my wishes why could you give me something like the ability to speak another language, like Mandarin Chinese or Russian… or Italian?" She added the last language as an afterthought, considering where she presumably was.

"Done!" The lady said cheerfully.

"(Italian) I was being sarcast- oh my god, what am I speaking? What the hell! What did you do to me?" The young woman clutched her throat. '_I think we're getting close to the area I'm allowed to freak out now._'

"I gave you the ability to speak all those languages, just like you asked."

"I was using sarcasm," Lily yelled frustratedly. "Now send me home!"

"But you haven't helped them with anything yet!"

"I _don't want_ to be here!" The raven haired girl threw her hands up into the air angrily.

"Um…Scusi…" Giotto interjected.

"What," the lady and Lily said together, though the latter's reply was a little more… aggressive.

"(Italian) I thought you couldn't speak Italian," Giotto said looking at his younger guest.

"I can't." Lily refused to believe that she was now speaking Italian. That was impossible. You can't just learn another language in a matter of seconds.

Giotto sweat dropped. "But you just did…"

"No. I didn't," Lily insisted. "I only know how to speak English, Korean, French, German, and Japanese. I might try my hand with Italian later on, but right now I don't need it."

"But you're speaking Italian right now," Asari pointed out.

"Impossible. I've never taken the time to learn it." She was not going to let herself believe in any of this crap. No way, no how.

"Why is it so difficult for you to believe you're here and this is really Vongola Primo and his guardians in front of you? You're making this so difficult for me," the lady whined.

"Because it is impossible. If this was the Vongola first generation, then that means they can use flames. And with those flames they can do a whole bunch of things normal people can't do. And those things are all impossible because they all defy the laws of physics, as well as time and space, and all that makes up reality. And I, for one, am not going to give into these illusions like some toddler who'll believe anything mommy and daddy told them because mommy and daddy 'know everything'." The girl signed quotation marks with her fingers to emphasize her point.

"Actually," the lady straightened suddenly. "Speaking of flames, yours should be activating pretty soon!"

"What are you talking about- Oh my god! My hand is on fire!" Lily screamed. She waved her right hand through the air desperately trying to make the purple flame go out. "Put it out! Put it out! Put it out! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! I'm gonna burn to death!" She screamed again and tried to put it out by rolling on the ground, but the flame refused to die out. "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Why won't it go out!"

Eventually she became tired and stopped freaking out. Lily placed her left hand on her knee to support herself, but still held her right arm out a distance. Panting, she glared at the offending limb. How dare it betray her and try to mess with her sense of reality.

Almost like a reply two more flames ignited, an indigo and a light blue.

"Aaagh! I'm too tired to freak out anymore!" The girl whined. "What the hell is causing this anyways? I know I don't have the right chemical compounds on my skin to spontaneously ignite three differently colored flames. And I most definitely don't have any flameproof gear. So why the hell am I on fire?"

"You could use dying will flames and you didn't use them while you were fighting in town?" G asked a little frustratedly.

"Wrong," Lily said bluntly. "You see these are not dying will flames, because such flames do not exist."

"I'm impressed. I can't believe you can call on three different flames," Giotto commented, dismissing her previous statement.

"Yeah, me too!" the lady nodded seriously. "I always thought you'd be a storm flame type, seeing as you have a rather rash and destructive attitude at unpredictable moments."

"I would have preferred sun flames," Lily grumbled. "It would have been more useful to me than these other ones."

"But I think I understand why you have these three," the lady continued cheerfully. "You have a very water like presence. So it makes sense that you have the three water based ones. And if you think about it, then these flames really do match you."

"Lies! I'm not anything like that manipulative and traitorous bastard Daemon! Nor am I aloof and violent like Alaude! And I'm not feeling very tranquil right now! Wait- Holy Chez! What the hell am I speaking now?" The younger girl clutched her throat again.

"The language of the stars!" The creepy-old-grandma-turned-normal-everyday-lady informed the other with a smile. "We can't have you spilling information of the future to these guys."

Lily's eye twitched. '_You know what? I'm not even going to bother_.' Instead she continued from where she left off before she realized that she was speaking yet another language, though not before switching back to Italian. '_Do I even have control of which language I want to speak anymore?_' She thought wearily. "Now if you don't mind, don't say anything because I don't care whether you do or don't, I am going to get out of here and either walk around till I find my family or wake up from this horrible dream."

"You know, that last statement contradicted itself," The lady said smugly. "After all that, you can't decide whether you're lost or if you're dreaming."

Lily blew a short raspberry at the woman before turning around to storm off. It was a childish act, but she was so pissed that she didn't care.

"Before you leave, I should warn you," the lady called out. "As you stay here, the memories everyone else have of you will fade away."

Lily whirled back around at that. "What?" she hissed, infuriated.

"For every day you stay here, one day will disappear from Amy's, Dougless', and everyone else's memories. You've known your foster family and everyone else where you live for about two years now. So that means you have about 700 days to finish this task. If not, then you'll remain trapped in this time and dimension forever. Well till you die of old age anyways."

Lily collapsed to her hands and knees. This was just too much.

"You mean," she whispered slowly. "_Just_ as I got over my mom and dad's death and _finally_ started opening up to my new family…that I'm going to lose everything all over again?"

"Well if you're going to look at this in the glass-half-empty way, then… yes. But on the positive side, you get a once in a life time chance to meet some of your favorite characters!"

The younger girl growled a little. "Let me ask you something, do you need to be alive and around for me to be able to get home?"

The con-artist/fairy placed her index finger on her chin in thought. "I'm not sure. I don't _think_ so."

"Okay then." Lily attacked the idiot with magic abilities once again. "I'm going to kill you for this!"

"Nufufufu, what is all this racket~?" Daemon Spade walked into the room.

"Aaaaaaaaahh! There's another one!" Lily shrieked. She squatted down clutching her head. "This isn't happening~! This isn't happening! _This isn't happening_!"

She looked back up to see everyone still there…and staring at her.

"Ack! I know what this is! My consciousness is attacking me for skipping school that Tuesday before break! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean too! I slept in because I forgot to set my alarm! What was I supposed to do? Just walk in, in the middle of class? No! Now I'm just making excuses and that'll just make this hallucination get worse! I'm soooorrryy~! I'll never do it again!" Then a horrible thought came to mind. "No! What if I've gone insane? Nooooooo! I don't want to be insane! I still have things to do, like traveling the world, and I have to be sane for that! Bad day! Bad day! Bad day! Oooh~! Now look what I'm doing, I'm repeating lines from Jackie Chan Adventures."

The lady hummed a bit. "I'm really sorry about this hun, but your worrying has put a lot of extra train on your body and your wounds have reopened. So~…"

Lily looked up in time to see the older woman swing her hand down. With a sharp pain on the back of her head, black spots appeared into her vision.

'_Yeah, that's starting to get old now_,' Lily thought blearily.

And then it all went black for the third time that day.

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**Poor Lily, getting knocked out all the time. Your thoughts?**

**Reviews are lovely!**


	3. Ch 3 Lions, Bad Guys, and Guitars Oh My!

**Like I promised, this chapter was being edited and now it's out! Though, the quickness was all thanks to a combination of all of your reviews and my grandpa's recovery rate!**

**Thank you to: Yuki97XD, Kildosad, YuujouKami, anna the viking XD, xxtoushirou, Hiyori-chanx33, Alexandria Volturi, calypso tchaka, and April Marciano!**

**Also thank you for the adds and favs! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 3 Lions, Bad Guys, and Guitars Oh My!

Lily groaned as she crawled back into a conscious state. "I have a headache the size of Texas that makes me feel like I'm standing under the Niagara Falls. Could you get me some water Amy? I'm probably dehydrated, which is the reason for the pain in my head."

"Sorry honey, Amy isn't here remember! But don't worry you can rely on me! By the way I'm Nina!" The older woman said cheerfully as she held out a glass of water.

"What the-!" Lily sprang up and fell off the other side of the bed. She groaned again. "Son of a hormone induced monkey wrench."

"Hmmm~ Why do you do that?" Nina inquired curiously.

"Do what?" Lily asked as she stood up, stubbing her tow on the chair behind her on the way. "_Shit_ake mushrooms!"

"That," Nina said, pointing to the girl. "You say weird things instead of a normal teenager's reaction. Like when I first met you. You shouted out something about a something cricket."

"No a something cricket you nitwit! Jiminy Cricket! You know from Pinocchio? He was also in Disney's Once Upon a Christmas, staring as the 'Ghost from Christmas Past' with Scrooge McDuck."

Nina scrunched up her face. "Never heard of him."

"Le Gasp!" Lily exclaimed, placing a hand over her heart. "How could you not know! Disney, despite their ridiculous princess stories, is the greatest thing ever! Mickey Mouse has been my idol for years!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now tell me why you say weird stuff!" Nina cut in.

Lily shrugged. "I've been told that I have a swearing problem, so I've been cutting out as much as I can by substituting other things. However, Jiminy Crickets came from my mom. That was one of her favorite exclamations and I ended up picking it up as well."

"Aaaah~," Nina said, nodding her head in understanding. "You're weird!"

"Don't ask if you don't really care," Lily growled.

"Um…Excuse me?"

Lily looked up to see Primo and four of his guardians still in the room. "You mean I'm still dreaming!"

"Aaw~!" The older lady cooed. "You're so cute when you're in denial. Don't worry, everything's going to be oookay!"

"Who's okay, idiot!" The younger girl bit back. "And why can't I make you disappear? This is all happening in my brain so shouldn't I have control over everything?"

"But this isn't happening in your mind!" Nina corrected happily. "And I've already explained everything to Giotto dear and his friends, so you don't have to worry about explaining anything to them!"

'_To kill or not to kill, that is the question._' Lily thought as her eye twitched in annoyance. Then another thought crossed her mind. "What are you anyway?"

"Hm? Why do you suddenly want to know?"

"So when I send you six feet under I know what to place on your tombstone," Lily growled.

However the moron of a woman didn't seem to understand that the younger girl was threatening her. Instead she looked really happy, like Lily had complimented her or something. "Well, like I said, my name is Nina! I work in the 'Grant A Wish' department of the 'Time and Space' division! I guess you would call me a Gate Keeper if you're looking for a title."

Lily rubbed my temples wearily. "Yeah, I've definitely lost it."

The five men in the room shared confused looks before four of them directed their gaze toward Giotto, telling him the do something. The blond huffed a little, but stepped forward to try and grab the two females' attention.

"I'm sorry, but what's going on?" Primo asked with a gentlemanly smile. But that smile gave Lily goosebumps. She could feel an aura of danger behind it. It was oddly terrifying.

"Oh! My apologies Primo! I completely forgot about the rest of you!" Nina exclaimed shamelessly. She doesn't seem to be able to sense the danger behind that man's smile at all.

Meanwhile Lily started to sink into a sea of self-pity.

"Uh…It's quite alright." The Primo seemed at a total loss.

"Hm~! Let's see, where did I leave off… Well! Vongola Primo and guardians present, I'd like to formally introduce you to Lily Hong! Lily, you already know all of them."

Said girl didn't bother answering. Instead she started hitting her head against the wall.

The men sweat dropped again, but none of them seemed to be able to find the words to reply. They were still unsure of how to react to her explanation while the girl was knocked out.

Nina continued unaffected. Dense to the others discomfort. "Well, like I already told you, Lily will be staying with you for a while until she either helps you with something really important or until her time runs out."

"It seems that you have brought Signora Lily here against her wishes, perhaps you should take her back home," Giotto suggested as he eyed the aura of depression clouding around the younger girl.

"Oh, it's quite alright! Lily wished for this!" Nina replied easily.

"I did not!" Lily snapped. "It was a 'wouldn't that be nice, but I'm glad it'll never actually happen' comment! Why can't you understand that?" She could rip out her hair, she was so frustrated.

"You're so cute!" Nina cooed some more before she turned back to the blond. "Please take good care of her while she's here!"

Giotto just stared numbly. This situation was already way out of his control.

"Well deary! Let's get you into a nice dress to match this timeline!" Nina suddenly exclaimed to the other's horror.

Faster than the blink of an eye, Lily had her back pressed against the wall on the opposite side of the room the other woman. "No way!"

"Aaw~! Don't be shy."

Lily could practically see pink hearts bubbling up from her. "It'll be a cold day in hell if you ever managed to get me within five feet from one of those...things!" She growled. "I haven't worn a skirt since I was twelve and I'd like to keep it that way."

Nina pouted. "Tomboys aren't as cute. How about in a nice pink?"

"How about I shoot you full of lead?" Lily countered bluntly. "Look, I'm not changing my wardrobe and you better not try making me."

"That means I have to use more magic to bring your clothes over there then," Nina whined.

"Or you could just send me back and save yourself the trouble," The younger woman pointed out.

"I already told you, I can't!" The pink haired female huffed, rolling her magenta eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world and it was annoying for her to repeat herself.

It really made Lily want to pound her face in, you know? "Tough nuggets then," she retorted.

"Why won't you try a dress? You had to where a skirt for your ballet classes!" Nina wailed.

"Worst six years of my life," Lily replied, shuddering at the memory. "And I had to take those classes because of my mom."

"What about the figure skating outfits and the cheer skirts!" Nina pointed out.

Lily blanched as she remembered those hideous outfits. Well some of the figure skating ones weren't all bad, but the cheer skirts definitely were. "That was a combination of my mom and Amy."

Nina sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll let you have your way. But I'm putting a few in there just in case you change your mind! How about you tell them a little bit about yourself?"

"I'm still convinced that this is all a hallucination, so I'm going to pass," Lily huffed.

"Well then how about a little spar with one of them?" Nina pressed. "I know! How about you try fighting Alaude!"

"In my mind or not, I'm not suicidal enough to even _think_ of trying to fight that guy," Lily deadpanned. '_Seriously, even if he was a figment of my imagination, I'm positive that he would still whoop my butt_.'

Nina puffed up her cheeks in a pout. "You're being so difficult, why can't you be cute like those Haru and Kyoko people?"

"Because I like my cynical and sarcastic side and I would hate to be that gullible. Besides, I've been in enough fights where that attitude would just be a hindrance." Lily stuck her tongue out for good measure. She puffed up her cheeks and started pouting. '_This wasn't fair at all. Why did this have to happen to me? There are plenty of crazy fangirls out there, who would love this position, so why couldn't this have befallen _them_ instead of me_?'

"That look is going to stick if you keep frowning like that!" Nina sang as she poked the crease between the younger girl's brows. "Or worse, you could get wrinkles!"

'_I _really_ want to smash her face in_.' Lily huffed angrily and spun around so that her back was facing the other woman. '_Don't do anything Lily. Remember, karma will just come back and bite you in the ass if you do anything. You _must_ remain strong!_'

Nina clapped her hands together. "I know how to make you smile!"

"Heh?" Lily looked around to glare at the women, but her vision was taken over by something yellow and extremely fluffy. She blinked.

"Ara?" Nina looked around the fluffy thing in front of me. "You don't like her?"

She started shaking from the growing emotion. "So cute!" Lily squealed and tackled the lioness. "Your so cute and fluffy! Yes, you are! So cute! So cute! So cute!"

"Should you really be allowing that girl to play with a full grown _lion_?" G asked incredulously.

The lion licked Lily's cheek, causing the girl to squeal in delight and hug the full grown lion around her neck and nuzzle the side of her face. "You're so pretty! I'm gonna name you KeunYoung after my 할머니 (pronounced: halmeoni)!" There seemed to be bubbles and an angelic haze surrounding the two.

"Lily is a complete sucker for most animals," Nina informed the bemused men.

Lily smiled sadly. "She'd probably have a heart attack if she saw me hugging you like this. She didn't even get to see me get my Associates Degree, let alone my Masters. But that one will take me another year at the very least, so I can't let my consciousness stay stuck in my mind forever." Lily giggled when the lion licked her sympathetically. "Hey, where did you tell them I was from anyways?" Lily asked the Gate Keeper.

Nina smiled brightly. "I told them that you were from a large island very, very, very, very, _very_ far away from here and that you came here to learn more about the other parts of the world! I also told them that you know several languages and that you are knowledgeable in business and politics, as well as a great deal of medical and science areas. I let them know that you grew up in a _much_ different environment than everyone else, so that's why you wear pants even though you're a girl and why you act so…strange compared to the other females around here. I also said you had a very high status in your society."

Lily's eye twitched. Suddenly she smiled brightly. "You know what I used to think, Nina?"

"Hmmm~ What?" Nina asked brightly.

"I used to think that idiots were placed in this world so that people like me could have a good laugh and some form of entertainment. But now~, I think that all idiots need to be exterminated before they can breed a new generation of morons." The last part of Lily's sentence was said in a hard and serious tone with an angered face.

"Uh…?" The silver haired woman said uncertainly. "I'm not sure I follow."

"It means I'm going to kill you!" Lily pulled a bat out of nowhere and ran after the older woman, only to freeze and bring her weapon down in front of her. "Where the h-e-double toothpicks did _this_ come from?"

"H-e-wha?" Giotto mouthed at his companions, who shrugged in return.

"I call it the fourth dimension!" Nina called out, switching to the language of the stars before she continued. "You're in an anime and manga, so a lot of the things kind of just happen without a really good scientific reason."

"Wrong! There is a reason for everything in life," Lily argued. "For every cause there is an effect. Science can explain everything!" The lioness growled as if to agree with her new companion.

Nina hummed a bit. "Think what you want, but here not everything can be explained. You're just going to have a little faith."

Lily's eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch, but she sighed and rubbed her eyes with a weary hand. "I give up." She muttered in exasperation. The raven haired girl walked over to the window and opened it up. "Hey, could you give me Dolly?"

"Dolly? You want a toy?" Asari asked.

Lily grimaced. "I haven't played with a toy since I was six. Dolly's the name of my guitar."

"Sure hun!" Nina giggled and snapped her fingers.

Lily's guitar's case strap appeared in her hand. "Good, now I'm going to find a nice big tree and play a few songs till I calm down. _Don't _bother me." With those lovely parting words, she hopped up and out of the window, heading toward the forest behind the mansion. KeunYoung decided she didn't like the remaining company and jumped out the window as well.

"Hmmm, it wouldn't be a very good idea to let her wonder around the mansion all alone," Nina said worriedly.

"I don't see why not," G rebuked.

"Well, there's going to be an attempt to attack this place soon I think, and I'm not sure she ready to help you guys in battle yet since she hasn't had any training with her flames and whatnot," Nina explained. "Not to mention the guards roaming the area and that Lampo and Alaude don't know she's here."

"And you're telling us _now_?" G asked incredulously.

Nina shrugged. "I forgot."

"This isn't very good," Giotto muttered.

"Yes, someone should go after her," Asari agreed calmly.

"Nufufufu, well I must protect the mansion since Elena is visiting, so it will have to be one of you who goes after the child." Daemon disappeared into a cloud of mist before anyone could object.

Giotto sighed. "I'll go. G, could you take care of everything else here?"

"Yes Primo," the red head answered respectively.

The group split up and their separate directions.

* * *

The moment Giotto reached the edge of the forest he was able to a quiet tune coming from within. '_At least she's close by,_' The blond mused as he entered the forest. He followed the tune till he was able to see the girl sitting on a large tree root up a short ledge. The blond paused as the sorrowful tune came to an end. The girl looked so troubled.

"Arg!" Lily suddenly yelled as the last few notes faded. "That song only made me feel worse! Stupid Lily! Don't play sad songs when you need to make yourself feel better!"

She started strumming a new tune, this one starting out slow, but then turned into a definitely lighter and happier tone. She smiled softly with her eyes closed and stood up. And almost unconsciously she started to dance to her tune, revealing grace in her movements where her personality seemed to lack. Her smile grew as she swayed to the tune, slowing down only to suddenly speed up when the tune picked up.

Giotto continued to watch, feeling like it would be wrong to interrupt her despite the reasons he originally came out to fetch the girl. But he was also cautious, as she could easily fall, especially standing on the edge of a ledge like that. The tune was an interesting one, using a style he had never heard before, but more enjoyable because of it.

The song ended and Lily smiled. "That's better. Woah!"

The girl lost her balance the moment her eyes had opened. But before Giotto could react, she had flipped over and landed on her feet with apparent ease.

"Ha! Stuck the landing!" The girl said proudly, holding her hands up in a 'Y' like she had ended a gymnastics routine. But then she noticed the man watching her with raised eyebrows and she blushed. "Erm…how much of that did you see?..."

"That whole song and everything that happened after it," the blond replied truthfully. "You shouldn't be embarrassed. You played wonderfully and you executed that landing quite well."

"Um…Thanks…" Lily rubbed the back of her neck and looked away. "Um…By the way…Why are you here?"

"Oh!" It was the blonde's turn to blush a little when he realized he had forgotten the main reason he had come. "I came to take you back to the mansion since we think that there's going to be an attack soon."

"Eh? You mean those guys over there?" Lily jabbed her thumb over her shoulder.

Giotto raised an eyebrow, but climbed the hill to see a pile of guys lying out in the middle of a large field.

"They tried to attack me and take me prisoner, which kind of pissed me off even more, so I vented my anger by beating the crap out of them," Lily explained to the stunned man as she climbed up behind him. "I didn't really realize how many there were until I had stopped."

"Ah…" The blond replied lamely. "And where's your lion?"

"KeunYoung wanted to play chase with a the guys that ran away, so I let her," Lily told the man easily. And as if the lioness knew that they were talking about her, she prowled back into the clearing and walked up to Lily so that she could nuzzle her head against the girl's side.

"Right…Well, we should head back now and let everyone know it's okay now," Giotto said in amusement. He had known that she was strong enough even without her flames, since she had defended the village for so long, but this attack turned out to be a good test to see just how strong she was.

"Sure," Lily said agreeably. "Mind if I played a tune on the way back?"

"Not if you don't mind putting up with my friends' antics during dinner," Giotto said with a smile.

Lily shrugged. "I've survived two whole weeks of at least seven brats demanding my attention since they didn't want to share me. I think I can handle your friends."

Giotto laughed. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Lily smirked. "You're on." '_This is all happening in my head anyways._'

* * *

**So Lily is still in denial, but as you learn more about her you'll be able to see why. I hope this chapter was enjoyable!**

**The songs that Lily was playing can be found on (you guessed it!) Youtube! I've been listening to Sungha Jung, who is an _amazing_ guitarist. The songs Lily was playing (in my mind at least) were the translations of: 1) Haru Haru by Big Bang, 2) Merry-Go-Round from Howl's Moving Castle composed by Miyazaki Hayao**,** and on the walk back Dust in the Wind by Kansas. If you just want the link to the videos then let me know through either your review or PM me!**

**Reviews are lovely and encourage faster updates!**


	4. Ch 4 Target Practice

**And Poof! Another chapter was born! Sorry, I'm on a happy little high right now. ^^" My grandpa was released from the hospital and I got so many wonderful reviews for a couple of my stories that I just had to get out another one quickly as a way to thank you guys!**

**I wish a special big thanks to: April Marciano, YuujouKami, Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, anna the viking XD, Alexandria Voulturi, xxtoushirou, MCRDanime, and Yuki97XD!**

**Also thank you for the adds and favs! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 4 Target Practice

"So how long have you been playing the guitar?" Giotto asked conversationally as the two walked down the corridor.

"Let's see…it should be about six years now. It's one of the few things that's still holding me together." Lily shifted the strap so that it wouldn't continue rubbing her neck.

Giotto considered asking, but he felt like that was a delicate topic that shouldn't be tread on recklessly. Before he could ask another question though, he was cut short by a knife nearly hitting his guest, who reflexively ducked down to avoid it. The cutlery stuck through the wall as if to prove that if Lily hadn't dodged, she would have been stabbed square through her forehead.

"Oh good job!" Nina called out excitedly, clapping her hands. "I wasn't sure if you'd be able to dodge that."

Lily's eyes twitched violently. "How 'bout I fill you with holes instead you…" The rest of her sentence was lost to the others because she switched to shouting in a language they weren't familiar with.

Giotto caught the back of the girl's jacket to keep her from going over and attempting to pulverize their other more annoying guest. But the girl didn't seem to realize it right away because she kept shouting and trying to walk over before finally cooling off enough. She huffed angrily, but allowed the blond man to lead her to her seat, sitting down with her arms crossed.

"Well three of you don't know who this is, so I would like to introduce you to Lily Hong. She'll be staying with us for a while," Giotto said before seating himself.

"I don't mean to seem rude, but you don't have to introduce yourselves to me," Lily said quickly, before the blond could continue. Her gaze flickered briefly between Alaude, Lampo, and Elena. "Knowing about you is probably why I landed in this situation anyways," she said through a weary sigh.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Elena said politely with a warm smile.

Concern flickered across Lily's face and she opened her mouth to give the blond woman a warning, but before she could make a sound, Nina had clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Sorry, sorry! I forgot to tell you Lily that all warnings about the future are to be kept to yourself." Nina said with an apologetic smile.

Lily mumbled something indignantly that sounded along the lines of "and why the heck should I do that?"

"I'm sorry, but if you try this chocker will make you mute until you stop." Nina pulled away revealing a black band now strapped around the younger girl's throat. But just as they started to take in the details of the accessory, it vanished. "It won't show itself unless you try talking about something you shouldn't, okay?"

"What the hel-_met_ man!" There was definitely a short gap where Lily forced herself to turn the curse into another word. "That's so not fair!"

"Oya? You're an oracle?" Daemon asked. "That explains your high status despite you lack of fighting prowess."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What else did you tell them?"

"Ah?...I don't remember what I said anymore!" Nina smiled despite the stupidity of the words that came out of her mouth.

Lily felt like she had aged a hundred years and resorted to banging her head against a wall to keep herself from attempting to kill the idiotic woman again. "I can't understand why my mind is doing this to me. What did I do exactly to deserve this torment?" Lily muttered to herself. But she sighed and sat down.

Their dinner was brought in and the group became more preoccupied by their food for a while before they struck up another conversation.

"So I noticed earlier that you said you named that lion after you're…Halmeoni?" Asari asked. "Though it sounds like it has Asian heritage, it's not a dialect I'm familiar with."

Lily nodded. "Correct. Halmeoni is Korean for grandma. I was raised to be trilingual, so I grew up knowing how to speak English, Korean, and German. Then I took other classes so that I could learn as many other languages as I could."

"So of what decent do you come from?" The Japanese man asked curiously.

"I'm half Korean and half white," Lily said proudly. "I'm not completely sure of everything on my white side, but I know that a quarter of it is German. I'm a little iffy on the rest."

"You must have had a tough life growing up," Asari said apologetically.

Lily scrunched up her face in confusion. "Huh? Why on earth would I?"

"'Cause you're a halfy, or in some people eyes a mutt," G answered.

Lily thought a bit, making funny faces as she went through her memories. But before she could answer she was interrupted by Primo.

"So…" Giotto said awkwardly, thinking that it would be better to redirect the conversation. "I'm guessing that you'd be more comfortable with someone close to your age. What do you think about accompanying Lampo for a while?"

The young boy let out an annoyed huff.

"Depends, how old is he?" Lily asked with an uninterested tone.

"14," G answered.

Lily nearly choked on her water. "Exactly how old do you guys think I am?" She asked suspiciously, her voice a little rough from the small intake of water through the wrong pipe.

"Maybe 12," Giotto answered.

"I'll be 19 pretty soon here." Lily said with poorly concealed irritation and an eye twitching. She sighed and sank a little into a blue cloud of depression, mumbling a little to herself. "Am I really _that_ short?"

"19! Shouldn't you be married and settled down by now?" Knuckles asked.

Lily broke out into a fit of laughter. "Married? Ha! Maybe in a few more years. Jeez! What era do _you_ come from?"

G and Giotto cocked an eyebrow at the girl.

"Ah. Right, stupid question," Lily amended.

"Still, you look quite young for your age," Asari said, meaning it to be a compliment.

But to Lily it meant otherwise. She placed a hand over her eyes and leaned heavily into the arm of her chair so that she was hunched over slightly, looking exhausted. "Please don't remind me. Respect is tough to come by when you look so much younger than others."

Asari just laughed.

"So I guess where you come from, it's normal for people your age to be single?" G asked, curious of what was to come.

"Well, where I live, medicine and technology is a whole lot better. So it's normal for us to live till our 90's, or even to a hundred," Lily explained. "And because of that we tend to marry around our mid-twenties."

The red head whistled. "You guys have pretty lengthy lives then."

Asari frowned a little. "But that also means a longer length of persecution. That must be tough for you."

Lily tilted her head in confusion. "Hah?"

"Well, you're of half Asian descent. Not only that, but you're a woman," Asari clarified.

"Pfft, nah," Lily waved her hand with a slightly smug look. "Where I live, race isn't that big of a deal. Men have also recognized that women are just as good, sometimes better, than them. Sure we can't ever be physically stronger than them, but our brains develop faster and we're more logical in many areas. It's a little sad that it took them so long though. It was actually a lot more recent than I like that everyone started to recognize that we're all equals despite our skin color or our genders. Then again, I can't necessarily say it's the same around the world. Just because I've been to friendly areas doesn't mean I don't see what's in the news."

"Well, why don't you tell us a little about yourself," Knuckles asked kindly.

'_Hmm. If this was in my head, then shouldn't they know everything they needed to? Or maybe there's a moral or something my brain is trying to get me to realize, and I won't able to wake up until I learn my lesson or whatever. And if that's the case, then maybe it would be better if I just played along…_' Lily smiled apologetically. "I really wouldn't know where to start. So perhaps there is something a little more specific you would like to know?"

"What is your combat ability?" Alaude had finally spoken up for the first time since Lily had entered the room.

Lily folded her hands together. "I have a little experience with hand-to-hand combat, and an even smaller amount of knowledge about a few sword styles, but I'm more of a tactician. Frankly speaking, I don't consider myself much of a fighter."

"Don't be modest Lily!" Nina called out. "Or should I call you L-T Hawk-eye."

The raven haired girl choked and red splashed across her face. "H-H-How did you find out about that?"

"I read everything in your file hun!" Nina said cheerfully, like she hadn't just invaded someone's privacy. "You're quite the expert marksman! I think you would make an excellent sniper!"

"So you have experience with rifles?" G asked, a little impressed.

Lily shoot her head. "The closet I've come to holding an actual weapon would be a paintball gun."

"Paint…ball?" Surprisingly it was Lampo who asked.

"Yeah, it's like playing war. You break up into two teams and you try to take each other out as you fight for the other team's base," Lily explained. "We all have nicknames while we're playing and Lieutenant Hawkeye was a character from a story that I admired so I chose to use her name. I was also the team's strategist and sniper. I would take out the other team members from my hiding spot up high and then relay the formations and ways to get past the other team to my team's captain."

"Is this your countries way of training kids for battle?" Daemon asked.

Lily shook her head again. "Nope. It's just a game."

"What a strange place," Lampo muttered.

But Lily chuckled. "It's actually a lot of fun, and usually it's just me and the guys trying to vent some of our frustration. Most people at school would probably categorize us as nerds, but we think it's because they're too afraid to break a nail to have that much fun. It was one of the many reasons I quite cheer in the middle of freshman year."

"Where does your knowledge fall?" Alaude asked bluntly, trying to continue his information gathering of the girl.

"Well I was going to major in medicine so I have a fair range of science and medical information, but I moved on to studying business and I wanted to work with a company with international dealings to I have a number of other languages under my belt. However, I'm still aiming to minor in psychology." Lily smiled crookedly. "I find that the human mind is absolutely fascinating."

"What are all the languages that you are able to speak?" G questioned next.

"Well, like I said, English, Korean, and German. Then there's also French and Japanese," Lily listed off.

"You also have Italian, Chinese, and Russian too!" Nina reminded the girl.

"I'm still not buying any of this," Lily grumbled under her breath, but thankfully no one heard her.

Asari whistled a little. "That's quite a number of different dialects and grammatical styles to learn."

Lily hummed a bit. "Not really. A lot of them are actually really similar. The difficult part was learning how to keep the different words and pronunciations from getting mixed up while I'm talking."

"What about your family?" Knuckled inquired. "Do you mind telling us a bit about them?"

Lily shrugged. "There's not much to tell. I had an older brother named Joey. Then there's my older sister, Christina and my younger brother Konner. And then you have my parents, Amy and Dougless."

"Earlier you referred to your parents by their names," Giotto mused. "Is this common where you live?"

"No," Lily looked around with an almost bored expression. "I call them by their names because they aren't my mom and dad."

"But you said…?" Elena trailed off.

"Amy and Dougless are my parental guardians, but they aren't my birth parents. They were merely the last ones who adopted me out of the foster care system," Lily clarified.

Though they were curious about the fate of her biological parents, no one dared to speak for fear of offending the girl if they asked the wrong way.

"So how long will you staying with us?" Elena asked kindly.

"Us?" Daemon asked in surprise. "You're not leaving tomorrow?"

"I think I'd like to spend more time with your newest guest, so I'll be sticking around a little longer. You can just think of me as your new big sister," Elena directed the last sentence toward the raven haired girl.

"I don't think you want that position," Lily told the woman. "I spent every last moment since I was adopted trying to drive my sister and brother crazy."

"But from what I can tell, you probably just did that to test how far their patience would go before they sent you away, am I correct?" The blond woman asked kindly.

Lily studied the woman. "…Perhaps…I don't really trust others easily. It's easy for someone to promise one thing one day, then turn their backs another."

"Then we'll all have to do our best to earn your trust and prove that we aren't like the ones who betrayed you in the past," Giotto was the one who spoke this time.

Lily shrugged. "Do what you like."

"Well I'm glad that's all settled." Nina smiled warmly.

The raven haired girl ducked again as another knife came flying her way. "What is this, treat Lily like a freakin' target dummy today!" She flipped over and pulled her chair in front of her to block another round of knives.

"Hm~, so it wasn't a fluke," Daemon said calmly.

"Alaude, Daemon, that's enough," Primo said firmly.

"Daemon, what if she hadn't dodged?" Elena said in a scolding tone.

"Then she would be too weak to risk having around. But I apologize. I wanted to make sure you wouldn't weigh us down with your presence here." Daemon leaned back into his chair with a small smirk.

"Why I oughta…" Lily grumbled darkly, thinking of a range of pranks she could pull in revenge.

"How are you planning to train your flames?" The beige haired man spoke up once more, not bothering to apologize for his actions.

The others sweat dropped as they watched the raven haired girl slowly piece together the man's question in her head. They could almost see the dots trailing above her head.

"Oh! You mean that dream within a dream I had earlier?" Lily exclaimed.

A few of the occupants almost fell over from the strength of the girl's denial.

"Liiiiilllyyyyy~" Nina whined. "It's not a dream! And you have to train your flames!"

But the younger girl just waved her away. "It is physically impossible to create flames from life energy. I'll go along with the rest of this for now, till I find the root of the problem that my mind is trying to tell me anyways, but dying will flames and whatnot are _way_ beyond my limit."

Nina huffed and pressed a hand to her forehead. "Okay! Let's say this is all just a dream, then why is it impossible for people to be able to produce flames?"

"Because even my level of imagination won't stray that far," Lily said obstinately. "My consciousness revolves around the facts of life and I've never had a dream as outrageous as this."

"What would it take for you to believe that this is all real?" The silver haired woman demanded.

Lily grimaced. "Nothing. There is nothing you can do or say that will make me believe any of this."

"What about that gunshot wound you took earlier?" Asari pointed out.

"That pain should be more than enough to prove to you that you aren't imagining all of this," G agreed.

Lily hesitated. It was true that, that level of pain was difficult for the brain to reproduce for someone who's never felt it before, not to mention the soreness she felt afterwards, including now. She shook her head vigorously. "It just _can't_ be real."

"Why not?" Knuckles asked gently.

"Where do all my belief's go if it's true!" The raven haired girl exclaimed. "All my years of studying and the knowledge I have built my life around. If a single person can just come in and throw my life into this sort of chaos, then _what_ about everything I've lived by, huh?"

"Nearly everything is the same," Nina pointed out. "It's just that there's a few extra things now and some activities are a little bit easier for you."

Lily sighed heavily. "Alright. For now I'll believe everything. It's not like I could change anything anyways."

"Good!" Nina took up her barbie again. "Then I propose that she trains with you guys individually whenever you have time!"

Giotto nodded. "I think that should be fine. What do the rest of you think?" Each of them called out their own form of agreement or approval. "Okay, then why don't we turn in for the night? Miss Lily, I'll lead you to your room."

"Just Lily, that miss this is just too formal," Lily said as she stood up to follow the man. "Hey, do you guys eat those sort of things every day?" The girl asked once they had exited into the corridor.

"What things exactly?" The blond asked.

"You know, that meat and potatoes sort of diet." Lily shrugged, unsure of how to describe it.

Primo smiled a little. "Well, I suppose we do. Why?"

"That level of carbohydrates and protein isn't very healthy," the girl explained. "You guys should really regulate more fruits and vegetables into your diet. You'll extend your lives a good deal if you have the proper amount of nutrients."

"Is this something your scientists have discovered where you live?" Giotto asked curiously. "Because here, what we eat would be considered not only fine dining, but extremely healthy."

Lily nodded. "I am aware, but over time your doctors will also realize what I already know."

The blond hummed in thought. "Well, change is a little difficult. I'm sure a few of the others won't be very accepting of your information, like Lampo and Daemon."

Lily scowled. It would be troublesome if she continued with their diet, but she would have to work her way through that slowly. "Do you mind if I cooked my own meals? I prefer making sure I know exactly what it is that I'm putting into my system. I mean no offense to your chefs, nor your hospitality. I just have a little…"

"Trust issues?" Giotto finished with a knowing smile.

"Yeah," Lily offered the man a crooked and apologetic smile.

The man chuckled softly. "It's no trouble. I trust the famiglia Miss Nina comes from, so I know I can trust you. Feel free to treat this place as your home."

The green eyed girl smiled her first genuine one that was actually caused and directed at another person. "Thank you," she said softly.

* * *

**And so we have come to the end of another chapter...So whadya think?**

**Reviews are lovely!**


	5. Ch 5 The Principles of Trust

**Yay! Another chapter! I can't believe how fast I'm putting these out! This is all thanks to my wonderful reviewers!**

**So a big thanks are in order for: April Marciano, anna the viking XD, YuujouKami, xxtoushirou, Alexandria Volturi, Loving-you-is-a-crime, and leena456!**

**Thanks to the adds and favs as well! Hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 5 The Principles of Trust

Lily yawned and stretched before climbing out of bed. It was a lovely morning and she felt well rested, though her side was a little sore. She looked around a little dazedly as she cleared the remnants of sleep from her eyes, wondering what Ami and Dougless had planned for today and their little adventure in Paris. '_Wait a sec…This isn't my hotel room…_'

"ARG!"

Lily huffed as she threw on skinny jeans, a light blue t-shirt, gray sleeveless cardigan and heeled boots, as well as her special charm bracelet. She was very irritated to see that she was still stuck in this ridiculous dream, though her sour mood eased up a little when she saw 'Little D', a ukulele she had gotten as a gift from her skating partner and friend, as well as KeunYoung who greeted her with a light nuzzle. She slung the strap around her shoulder so that the instrument was against her back and wondered out of her room in search for the kitchen. Only to remember, after she had already turned down several hallways, that she was directionally challenged.

She sighed heavily. "For times like these I really need one of those mini GPS thingies."

Keun made this sort of throaty sound that sounded distinctly like a chuckle.

"What? So I wasn't paying attention last night! Sorry~ for not having a long term eidetic memory!" Lily said defensively. "What about you? I don't suppose you know how to get there?"

The lion seemed to giving her a look that said 'are you kidding me? I'm just a lion. I don't have to remember such trivial details.'

Lily sighed. "Right. I thought so. Well, I guess this is a good time as any to find out how big this place really is."

"Excuse me, miss?"

Lily turned around to see a young girl in a maid uniform standing nervously behind her. Lily smiled. "Hi there."

"A-Ano, I can show you to the kitchen if you like," the girl said nervously, tugging on a fold in her uniform.

"Ah! You're my savior!" Lily nearly hugged the girl. "I thought I might die of hunger out in these hallways!"

The girl turned bright red. "U-uh! Yes. Um! Please follow me!"

"So what sort of work do you guys have to do here?" The raven haired girl asked conversationally as she gazed at the portraits and other decorations with interest.

"Uh, well the maids take care of most of the cleaning and whatnot. I think the butlers mainly stick to serving the masters and such. Cleaning is a woman's work after all," the gril replied meekly.

"Nonsense!" Lily exclaimed, startling the other girl. "Why is cleaning only for women! Men are just as capable of taking care of the laundry as anyone else! Saying otherwise is just blasphemy!"

The maid smiled. "You are very strong willed. That's admirable."

Lily shrugged. "I just hate being talked down to. When I was in middle school, all the guys insisted that they were the best in the class, so I spent those two years proving that I was as good or even better than them. I ended up being in the top two of our year for athletics as well as holding the first chair for the violin section."

"Wow! That's really amazing miss!" The maid praised.

Lily smiled a little. "Just call me Lily. None of this miss nonsense, I'm probably about the same age as you anyways."

The other girl had a look of horror. "Oh no miss! I could never-"

Lily cut the girl off by holding up her hand. "If you don't call me by my name then I'm going to get down on the ground and wail like a spoiled brat till you do."

"But, but, but…" The girl flailed as she tried to find a reason not to call the other by name.

Lily chuckled a little. "How about I play you song and visit you from time to time? Then will you call me by my name?"

The girl started to turn red again. "I…I…"

"Then it's settled!" Lily exclaimed and pulled Little D around. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Er-…Erika…"

"Alright! Mind you, I'm not very good with singing so this will be an instrument only song. That okay?"

"Oh yes! That's more than enough miss- I mean Lily."

The raven haired girl grinned and strummed up a happy little tune for the rest of their walk to the kitchens.

"Welcome! Welcome!" A large and very stereotypical Italian man wearing a slightly stained chef's uniform came forth to greet Lily as she entered the warm room.

'_There goes all my years of telling others not to expect such ridiculous stereotypical stings and not to judge other countries or people by them._' The raven haired thought sarcastically as she did her best to smile politely when she greeted the man. "Good morning sir."

The man smiled boisterously and waved the girl in. "Not many besides Primo and Alaude get up this early! I'm happy to see another early bird who likes to come to the kitchens themselves. I always like the company."

"Oi! Chef! What about us?" One of the helpers called out with mock indignity.

"I get more than enough of you slackers!" The man called back, but it was all said in good humor. "So what can I get you? Primo makes sure that we have just about everything, considering where all the masters come from."

"Well…I'm not really familiar with what you have around here. This is my first time away from my home…" Lily rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. '_Not to mention time, but that's a comment best left to myself._'

"Well, let's start with a preference then!" The man said cheerfully. "Do you like meat and eggs in the morning? Or perhaps some freshly made bread?"

"Um…Could I get a couple slices of toast with jam and butter, three eggs, a little bit of whatever fruit available, and some coffee with cream too?" Lily asked shyly.

The man laughed boisterously. "Quite the eater here! We'll get some out right away! My name's Alfeo!"

Lily seated herself on a stool by the counter and watched the workers rush around. "Say," she started when the man came back with a mug of coffee. "What did Primo and Alaude eat for breakfast?"

Alfeo hummed a little bit. "Well Primo just had a cup of coffee, but I think Alaude had a croissant with butter and honey besides his espresso."

'_Oho? That man has a possible sweet tooth?_' Lily sipped her beverage with a small smirk. But then she frowned. It wasn't very healthy to start their days like that. Alaude was fine, but the blond needed to eat something. She paused her worrying in favor of the food set down in front of her and dug in. Everything was made from scratch and was positively fresh, making for a wonderful start for her day.

'_It's amazing what my mind can come up with!_' She thought pleasantly and walked out to the gardens. She walked over to the nearby lake and sat down in the shade of the nearest of the surrounding trees, leaning against its trunk. Keun came over and curled up nearby as well.

"Hey, you wanna hear a few songs?" Lily asked the lioness. "I'll even sign a few."

Keun responded by nuzzling the girl's leg for a moment.

Lily smiled. "Okay then. Well let's see, when this song came out, I know every girl wanted a boyfriend that could sing this to them. I'm sure you're love a nice male companion who thought this way about you."

She strummed her happy little tune with a small smile and nodding to the beat. She sang and grinned as the lioness in front of her seemed to tune in and smile longingly. She didn't have the best voice in the world, but she was still really nice to listen to. She sang a couple other songs (one of which she couldn't remember the words to) before deciding to play the song she played for Erika this morning, this time with the lyrics. She and the lion danced around each other sand she sang, laughing and having fun in ways that Lily hadn't had in a very long time.

But hey, it was in her mind right?

"That was a very nice song," Primo said, stating his presence and nearly sending Lily into cardiac arrest.

She leaned against a tree and grasped her chest as she tried to regulate her heartbeat again.

"Sorry, sorry," Giotto said with a small laugh. "I didn't mean to frighten you like that."

Lily waved the man's apologies away. "My fault for not being more aware of my surroundings. So how are you this morning?"

"I'm doing quite well, and you?" The blond replied politely.

"I'm fine. But I must ask, do you always skip breakfast like this morning?" Lily questioned.

Primo raised an eyebrow. "When I feel a little pressed for time, I suppose I do."

The raven haired girl scowled. "That's very bad! It's unhealthy for you to start your day with such a lack of nutrients. Don't you know that you'll have more energy for the rest of the day if you eat a decent breakfast in the morning? It also helps it increases your concentration throughout the day! Also eating a healthy breakfast will regulate your metabolism and body weight! People who skip breakfast are unlikely to make up their daily requirement for some vitamins and minerals that a simple breakfast would have provided. Breakfast provides energy for the activities during the morning and helps to prevent that mid-morning to afternoon slump," Lily lectured with a finger in the air and a hand on her hip.

The blond watched with amusement and interest about what the girl knew.

"Hunger sets in long before it's time for lunch, but because it's not convenient to eat properly, many people who have not eaten breakfast snack on foods that are high in fat and sugar. That's probably why Lampo eats so many! And that may seem fine now, but as you get older your metabolism slows down, which is how you gain more weight since your body can't burn fat as easily. This can turn into other serious health problems and a shorter life span! Even if you feel like you're pressed for time, you should try to get something in. A simple slice of toast with butter and jam can do wonders and is a whole lot better than going without eating at all! I can't say much for coffee since I'm a caffeine addict, but having a cup of orange juice or milk will help ask well. Ah!" Lily froze. "I went into lecture mode didn't I?"

The blond stifled his chuckle, but nodded. "I guess you kind of did. But you've convinced me to eat something for now on."

"Really? That's great!" Lily smiled.

"By the way, what instrument it that?" Giotto asked, pointing to the mini guitar on the girl's shoulder.

"Oh, this? It's called a ukulele. I call here Little D." The green eyed girl held up the musical device so that it was easier to see.

Primo smiled, but there was a distinct air of confusion around him.

"I think that it's also called a braguinha, but I'm not sure. It's really just a mini guitar, which is why I call her Little D, for Little Dolly. Anyways, she's a gift from a friend of mine. Because she has a higher pitch, I like playing fun little happy songs with her." Lily swung the instrument so that it was resting against her back again. "So what's the plan for today? If I'm training with Alaude or Daemon, then I'd like to know now so that I can get a good head start with running as far as I can from them."

Giotto outright laughed at this. He couldn't blame the girl for her attitude toward his companions, but her bluntness was beyond amusing, especially since he was so used to soft spoken, conservative, or outrageously flirty types. "Actually, I was going to see how well you can handle some business details and then G was going to take you to the shooting range later."

Lily let out a small breath that she didn't realize she was holding. "I suppose it will be rather minor details that I'll be attending to, because even if you trust whatever 'family' Nina comes from, it would be unwise to trust personal and important details to a stranger you barely know."

The blond nodded. "I'm glad to see that you aren't offended."

Lily shrugged. "I see no reason to be. I wouldn't trust important information going to a person I didn't know for at least a year. And even then it would be a little iffy."

"Is there a reason you are so untrusting?" Giotto asked, gesturing for her head inside with him.

Lily tensed slightly. "I've learned the hard way that people shouldn't be so easily trusted."

"I apologize. That must have been quite the ordeal to make you so guarded around others." The blond bowed his head consolingly.

Lily smiled, but it came out a little strained. "It was a long time ago. I'm not going to look back all the time. I've learned to look forward to the future and aim for living life to its fullest and longest."

Primo nodded and held the door of his office open for his guest to enter. "That's a good outlook on life. Now here's what I'd like your assistance with." He handed her a pile of paperwork.

"Okay, I guess it could be worse." Lily smiled crookedly as she hefted the manila envelopes into her arms. Then she noticed the man's almost evil smile.

"Oh, that was just what you needed to start first to get the hang of what I need you to do before you move onto the rest. You also need to do those too." He pointed to the several large stacks next to the coffee table, that the raven haired girl could swear wasn't there five seconds ago.

Lily almost fainted from the sight alone.

* * *

"Liiiiitttle floooooooooweer~!" Nina called out, waving frantically as Lily and Giotto entered the dining room. "How are you? I haven't seen you in forever!"

"First of all," Lily growled, "I saw you last night. Second of all, I feel like my hand will either cramp so badly that it'll never be usable again, or it'll just fall off. And frankly speaking, I might want it to just fall off right now, it hurts so bad."

G raised an eyebrow and slowly turned to face his childhood friend. "Did you have her help you with that monstrosity of a pile Alaude, Lampo, Daemon, and all their workers left?"

Giotto smiled brightly. "She handled it all very well. I didn't even have to teach her anything and she got it all done before lunch. I'm impressed with her work ethics and level of consideration."

"I had several different jobs in the elections office. And most of the time I ended up doing a lot of filing for not just my specific job, but a number of the upper echelons as well," Lily informed them as she massaged her hand. "Although, I wasn't aware that three people and their cronies could create that much work."

Asari laughed. "Usually Giotto would be working on that through the night. I have to say that I'm also surprised that you were able to take care of all of that work so efficiently."

G sighed. "You took advantage of a guest. I can't believe you Giotto."

A vein popped on Lily's temple, but the blond only chuckled with his bright smile still in place.

"It's okay!" Nina exclaimed. "I told him that Lily is free to be used however you needed!"

Lily finally snapped and landed a solid slap to the back of the idiotic woman's head, sending her face first into the floor below. "Try saying that again and I'll gut you alive."

"Little flower~!" Nina whined, looking up with barely a bump. "That hurt!"

But the younger girl just ignored the other and dropped into one of the chairs with a heavy sigh. She turned a critical eye toward the blond. "I think it would help you a great deal if you set up a different filing system. While your current one does work, it's not as proficient as some others I have in mind. There is also a great deal of information that is either entirely unneeded or belongs elsewhere. Your codes are also very basic and it didn't take me very long to decode them."

"Oh? So you were able to read them after all." It was Giotto's turn to study the girl. "But I'm curious as to how you were able to decode them without a prior reference and without a way to record the message."

"My memory is unique. While I don't have a long term eidetic memory, I am capable of remembering whatever I choose for as long as I need to know it. However, unless I take the time and effort to commit the information to my long term memory, whatever I learned will be forgotten," Lily explained. She wasn't bragging. She was merely stating the facts. "However, it isn't as proficient as it seems. It takes a very long time before whatever I learn is able to be stored in my long term memory. So while I can repeat everything said in this conversation right now, I won't be able to recall every detail as finely in let's say, another hour. Hence, why I still have to study for hours on end before I could remember everything taught in my classes. It is also why I'd have to reteach myself that same code if I saw it again tomorrow."

"Why not just memorize it today?" G asked.

"I don't need it. And in any case where someone unfavorable does, then there's nothing they can do to get it from me," Lily answered coolly.

"Are there any exceptions to how the things around you are stored in your memory?" Primo asked curiously. He could already see several ways how her ability could be of use to him and a great danger.

Lily blinked, breaking her professional attitude. "Actually there is." She smiled a little. "If I hear something in song, I'll nearly always remember it."

"You're like a little birdy!" Nina squealed.

Lily scowled. "I suggest you never call me that again or-" She froze mid-sentence and turned to scan the view outside the window.

"What's wrong?" Primo asked, suddenly the air of playfulness was gone. He could sense that the younger female was on edge.

Lily studied the trees, trying to find what she had seen for a second. She started counting the number of people hiding among the trees and moved back over to her chair like she hadn't seen anything. "I think you may have to go defend your mansion. There's a group of thugs getting ready for attack. But their formation looks more like someone is just gathering information. Actually…it was the same yesterday. It was strange how they attacked me in the village and forest, and I felt like someone was watching the whole time, but I could never locate them because of the constant attack."

The three men looked at each other and frowned.

"That is cause for concern," Giotto mumbled. "G, you take Lampo and head out first. Asari will back you up if you need it. I'll have Alaude look for this other person while Daemon and I look after everyone here."

"Yes boss," the two said quickly and were off again.

"Do you get this often?" Lily asked exasperatedly.

The blond offered her a crooked apologetic smile. "Since we became associated with the mafia."

"Of course," the raven haired girl muttered, running a hand through her hair.

"Do you think you could locate the person who's just observing?" Primo asked the girl.

"Perhaps, but I would find it easier if I had a higher perch," Lily admitted.

"Will the roof work?" The blond glanced at the girl, completely serious.

"It should. And if Nina could get me my specially built paint gun, I can even mark the guy or wherever he's hiding for you." Lily smirked. She nodded in approval when her fake rifle appeared in her hands.

Giotto nodded. "Then let's go."

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**Yeah, more action! And for those who want to know, the songs she played were (in this order): Count On Me By Bruno Mars, Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars, I'm Yours by Jason Mraz, The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars (this was the only song she didn't sing to), and Count On Me again. The versions all transposed by Sungha Jung!**

**I hoped you liked this chapter! Reviews are lovely!**


	6. Ch 6 Pressure Points

**Yikes, I'm not sure where all of these chapters are springing up from. But I guess this is good for you guys! You're reviews has just put my imagination and motivation into overdrive! **

**So big thank you's to: YuujouKami, anna the viking XD, Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, April Marciano, Alexandria Voulturi, and xxtoushirou! Also a thanks to the adds and favs!**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 6 Pressure Points

Lily kept her center of gravity low to the ground as she looked around carefully for the hidden observer. Lampo and G were already outside taking care of the pawns, so the other guy should be watching them carefully. He would need a good spot, slightly above ground, so that he could have the best observational view. He would also need to stay somewhere where there were enough shadows and foliage to stay hidden, but wouldn't completely block his view of everything.

Lily smirked. Bingo.

The girl took aim and fired two shots, one at the base of the tree to show the others where the spy was located and one at the person. Since the person wasn't wearing any protective gear, the paintball knocked him out of the tree since it actually hurt pretty badly. A look of horror was on the guys face as he fell, but when he didn't die, it was evident that he was confused. In a flash, Alaude was next to the person and cuffing them.

"Woot!" Lily cheered and stood up, carefully heading toward the door.

"That was a very good shot," Primo commented when the girl came back in.

Lily smiled. "I spent all my off hours playing, so if I couldn't do that much then I would be disgracing the name I chose. Hey, do you mind if I come with? I want to know why that guy was watching me."

"I guess you could. But you'll have to leave right away if I tell you to," Giotto told the girl as they walked quickly through the hallways to meet G and the others.

The red head looked up at the duo approached and smiled. "Nice shot. It's good to see that you weren't kidding."

Lily shrugged modestly, but still smiled a little. She turned to observe the spy and saw that her shot had hit him square in the chest. Not bad for shooting in an unfamiliar territory. She kept a carefully blank face on as she observed the person. "So, is there any reason you decided to follow me? I'm pretty sure that I haven't been around long enough to earn anyone's resentment. Or was that just collateral damage and I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

The person clicked their tongue. "I should have known you were one of the Vongola's wenches."

A vein popped on Lily's temple. She reached over and pressed down on a pressure point on the guy's arm, making him cry out in pain. "First of all, I'm not a wench. Second of all, I don't belong to anybody. Third of all, don't piss me off."

G whistled.

"How did you cause him pain with just a simple touch?" Daemon asked curiously.

"Several months of studying the human body and then connecting that knowledge to different self-defense classes," Lily replied unhelpfully. She took a step back, not so that she could get a better look at the spy though. It was because Alaude was giving her a weird look and it made Lily feel like running as far away as possible for fear of pain.

"So why were you following her?" Knuckles decided to ask again for the girl.

The man grimaced. "I wasn't following her originally. Her ability caught our attention and we were planning to take her to our boss later since it didn't look like she worked for anybody."

An eye twitched as Lily took in the man's words. '_And this is where I should probably run and hide under a bed till the danger has passed over._' She sighed and started to back away. "That's all I really wanted to know. I'll leave so that you can do whatever it is you do when you catch someone. Buh bye."

Primo and G nodded to the girl before turning back the captured spy.

'_Since my lunch was interrupted, I think I'll head back to the kitchens._' Lily yawned and headed off leisurely. And after a nice lunch filled with delicious food and interrogating the chef about what the others usually ate for lunch and dinner, Lily went off to see if the others had finished yet. She decided that he best bet would be to check Primo's office first, if not, she could take this time to get to know the building and so that she wasn't restricted to just the routes that were shown to her.

However, her attention was diverted when she heard and angry neigh coming from the stables. Curiosity overriding her need to get to know the mansion more, Lily hopped out an open window and strolled over to the structure. She peered inside and saw a number of horses, and with a sudden idea she ran inside and gathered a bunch of apples and carrots from the kitchens before running back. She fed all the horses an apple or carrot, petting and complimenting each of them until she reached the back and caught sight of a sleek black mustang. The horse glared at her in contempt, making Lily hesitate, but she pushed herself forward and stood before the large creature's stall and rolled and apple out to it.

The horse didn't move right away, as if trying to detect any malice coming from the girl. But when he couldn't find any ill will, he leaned down and ate the small offering. Lily smiled excitedly and held a carrot on her open palm. The horse came forward and licked up the treat, making the girl giggle like a little girl. She reached forward, still a little cautious, and placed a hand on the animal's nose. The horse leaned into her touch, so Lily hugged the animal around his neck.

"Were you the one who whinnied so furiously just now?" She whispered to the animal.

The horse looked at her with his big black eye, then gave her a nod.

"I'm sorry. You must not like being cooped up in here huh?" Lily smiled apologetically. "Hmmm. I'll call you Sirius, like the constellation! Since you have a star on your forehead, I think it would fit nicely, don't you think?"

The horse nuzzled the girl as if in agreement.

Unnoticed by the two, one of the stable boys had just entered the building, only to backtrack quickly when he caught sight of the two. He clutched a hand over his chest from the sudden fright he just received. Some strange girl he had never seen before was petting the most dangerous horse in the stable. And not just any horse, this was Alaude's new mustang. They had been trying for weeks to calm the creature and start training it, but it had fought them tooth and nail. Yet this girl had just walked right up to it and he started behaving. He debated what he should do, finally deciding that it would be wisest to report this to Alaude first.

"Mr. Alaude sir!" The boy called out when the beige haired man came into sight.

"Ah, Carlo," Primo greeted for the other. "Is there something a matter?"

"The horse," Alaude said sternly. "You've gotten it to calm down."

The boy hesitated. "Not quite sir. There's a girl in the stables and she was able to get close without 'im fighting her off. I don't know who, but that 'orse seems to like 'er."

"Girl? You mean Lily-san?" Asari asked.

G shrugged. "Well Nina did say she liked animals."

Alaude didn't say anything, choosing to check out the situation with his own eyes and not really caring if the others followed. He walked into the stables to see that the horse and the girl were indeed getting along. The new girl, who had only _really_ caught his attention this afternoon with her shot, was sitting next to the creature and describing someone to it while she stroked its neck.

The moment the animal caught wind of the approaching man, he jumped up and hid the girl behind him protectively while he neighed angrily at the blond man. Alaude just stared coldly at the animal, but it didn't back down and glared right back.

Lily maneuvered between the two and stoked the animal's head. "Sirius, calm down. It's okay boy."

Alaude narrowed his eyes slightly. "You named it."

The girl looked back with an unconcerned expression, though her eyes showed defiance. "Yes. I think it fits him nicely. Sirius is the brightest star in the night, well a cluster of starts actually, but I think it works well because this horse is extremely bright and as loyal, or more so, than any canine companion."

The horse nuzzled the girl affectionately and tried to push her out of harm's way. He could sense that the beige haired man was a carnivore in every sense of the word and the horse feared for the girl's safety, especially how the human male was observing her so.

Alaude raised a hand to strike the horse for its insolence, but was stopped by the girl.

"That's enough. Leave Sirius alone." The girl's words and stance was firm.

Alaude studied the girl some more before he smirked. "So be it." He then just walked away.

Lily waited till the man was a distance away from the stables before relaxing. "Oh my god I thought I was gonna die!" She exclaimed, clutching her head.

Sirius shook his head and huffed. But he leaned forward and nuzzled the girl as thanks before pushing her away, indicating that she should head back up to the mansion. Lily smiled and patted the horse good bye.

"Not bad."

Lily nearly jumped out of her skin. She whirled around to see G and Giotto leaning against the wall outside the stable. She clutched her heart and took a few stabilizing breaths. "I'm starting to think you're trying to kill me by way of shock."

The blond smiled apologetically.

"I thought for sure that Alaude was going to hit you," G said calmly, despite the gravity of his words. "Although, it sounds like you did too. Still, I'm pretty impressed. He must have seen something that he thought was worth keeping you around."

"Really? I thought he was just thinking of ways to eat me or something," Lily shuddered. "He looked like that wolf getting ready to attack his prey in that documentary I saw once."

"Documentary?" Giotto asked curiously.

Lily waved him away. "Don't think about it. I wouldn't know how to describe it very well anyways without going into really long and complicated details."

"Well, in any case. G wants to see how well you are with a regular pistol," Primo told the girl, shrugging away from the wall ad walking past her. "Also, Alaude has requested some time tomorrow morning so that he can observe you."

It may have been possible that Lily's heart had just stopped.

* * *

"How is it…" G rubbed his temples with one of his hand, his other arm supporting, "that someone with amazing long distance aim, can't aim a simple hand gun properly?"

"Is that a rhetorical question or do you want to mechanics as to why it's not possible?" Lily asked, not really fazed with her results. Hey, she told them that she was more of a long distance shooter. No one ever said she was good with close range as well.

G rolled his eyes. "Real funny you twit. I had high expectations for you."

"Really? I think I did pretty well," Lily disagreed expressionlessly. "Usually anything I aim at that's close range ends up at least ten feet from the original target, but this time I was actually hit part of the outside. There's a reason my P.E. teacher made a point to never put me on as pitcher when I was in middle school. Then again I'm pretty good at football…Actually, my aim with my feet is completely better than my hands/arms. Hm… I never really considered that before…weird."

G sighed. "Then I guess this is something we'll have to work on. If you're going to be staying with us for a while, then you should learn how to shoot a hand gun properly."

"Ai, Ai Cap-ee-tan!" Lily mock saluted the man, though still maintain her bored expression.

"Have you ever used any other mid-range weapon?" G asked.

"I got a chance to try a little archery once," Lily said after some thought.

G's eyes lit up a little. "Really? And how'd that go?"

"Badly," The raven haired girl replied bluntly. "Nine of the arrows went either two feet or somewhere off to the side. So on the tenth one I was just fed up so I pulled the arrow as far back as I could, closed my eyes, and fired. Heh. That one made it right into the middle of the target."

G raised an eyebrow. "…You're making that up."

"No, really! When I don't aim, my accuracy goes up exponentially," Lily told the man. "Like if I don't try to hit Konner with a ball and I just throw it at his general direction without looking, then it'll usually hit him."

The red haired man shook his head, torn between exasperation and laughter. "Let's stick to you learning how to fire this first before we start thinking of trying to put a reign on your other areas of horrible aim."

"Hai!" Lily saluted the man. '_I'm really starting to feel like Fran now…_'

The two worked for another few hours before deciding to call it a day. G told the girl that he wanted her to practice every day, even if he wasn't there to work with her. Usually there was always someone nearby who could help her if she needed, so she should be fine. On the way to the dining room they met up with Asari, who invited Lily to have some tea with him the afternoon of the following day, to which Lily agreed easily. Entering the dining room, Lily was happy and extremely suspicious to see a lack of a certain loud and idiotic woman.

"Where'd Nina run off to?" The raven haired girl asked warily. "Though I'd prefer to have at least a hundred foot radius restraining order on her, I'd also like to know what she was planning beforehand so that I have the chance to run away."

"Miss Nina isn't here today," a butler came up the raven haired girl to say. "But she left this behind, saying that you would find it interesting and that it would help with your stay here."

Lily took the box from the man, set it down in a far corner, then backed away several feet before opening it with a long pole.

"Um…What are you doing?" Giotto asked, having just entered the room.

"Nina left this behind apparently and I'm opening it from a distance in case there's another freakin' vortex of doom hidden in there," Lily said nonchalantly, causing most of the room's occupants to sweat drop. When nothing sprang out of the container, she slowly crept over and peered inside. To her surprise and delight, there was a book inside, 'DWF Pressure Points'. A quick glance through the book showed Lily a few of the pressure points she could use in battle against flame users.

'_If I use these correctly in battle then I can be like Ty Lee on Avatar: The last airbender!_' Lily thought excitedly. There were ways to just block the energy flow, so that the person could still move. And other ways that you could not only disrupt the energy flow, but also paralyze the opponent, just like Azula's friend.

"Must be an interesting gift she left you," Asari commented, reminding the girl that she wasn't alone.

Lily smiled a little. "I love all sorts of books. But I love books that I can learn from and put to use immediate more. This will be very helpful during my stay here, especially since it fits my style of fighting."

"Oh? And what would that be?" Alaude had entered the room as well.

"I prefer hand to hand combat. It's easier to strike critical blows without killing someone and while I'm no stranger to using something else to aid me, I still tend to fall back on my martial arts and other close combat fighting styles." Lily held up a hand before anyone could speak, looking bored. "However, if any of you would like to challenge me, please let me know now. I'd like a nice head start for running away. I may know how to fight, but I also know my limits and you guys are _way_ out of my league."

Lampo smirked and Asari along with Knuckles broke out laughing, while Giotto, Daemon, G, and even _Alaude_ chuckled. Though, the beige haired man was able to hide it for the most part since he was quiet and his small smile was hidden behind his fist. But even that left Lily gaping.

"What?" Primo asked when he saw the girl's slightly horrified look.

Lily shook her head to bring herself back to reality. "I think the cogs in my brain just got dislocated." '_Alaude smiled. _Alaude smiled_. Should I have expected that? I mean, he _is_ human. And I guess as an adult he would be a more mature person compared to Hibari. And those two aren't the same person, so of course they wouldn't necessarily like the same things, which would explain a possible sweet tooth for Alaude. But still…_' Lily pinched her cheeks, to the others' surprise and slight amusement. "My train of thought _really_ needs to stop derailing."

Dinner was brought out, pulling the conversation to a stop as they all dug in. Lily noted with a small amount of distaste that there were a lot of the carbs and protein combination served, but she kept her comments to herself since it did taste wonderful. However she declined the wine she was offered.

"Is it a brand you're not comfortable with?" Primo asked when he noticed. "We have several others you may try."

"Ah, no. Really it's okay." Lily smiled apologetically. "Where I come from there's an age restriction for drinking alcohol."

"But you're in Italy now and no one here cares," Lampo disputed.

Lily continued to smile ruefully. "Well even then…I'm allergic to alcohol of any form, so it doesn't really matter what age I am."

"That's certainly no fun," Daemon commented.

Elena hit the blue haired man. "Daemon, you should be more sympathetic. It's not her fault that she can't drink the beverage."

Lily laughed a little. Elena was like a more refined version of Christina… '_Hn…I wonder what they're doing right now?_ _If their memories of me are slowly fading, does that mean they still remember me now and are trying to find me? Or do they think I'm away at college and they are slowly forgetting my current self, working their way back?...I actually miss them more than I thought I would…I wonder if they're okay…_'

"Lily, are you alright?" Knuckles asked, noticing that the girl's attention had drifted off and she had an almost longing look.

Lily looked up and offered the man a smile. "Just thinking of my parents as well as Christina and Konner."

"You must miss then a lot," Elena reasoned with a small sad smile.

Lily scrunched up her face. "Miss them? Sure. A lot? No. I was going to leave once I got the job I wanted anyway. My ties with them aren't very strong and I don't want to mess with their family."

"You probably would have kept in touch though," Asari pointed out.

Lily shrugged. "Maybe."

Before Lily could continue, KeunYoung, who had been wondering around the forest all day since she didn't like to be cooped up indoors, wondered back into the mansion and over to her new charges side. The lion felt the need to protect the girl just like the black horse.

Lily smiled. "Hi Keun. Did you have fun?"

The lion yawned and muzzled the girl, making her giggle a little.

"How is it that you can smile like that toward animals, but not toward your fellow humans?" Lampo asked.

Lily looked up, her smile fading by a considerable portion. "I guess I just feel more comfortable with them. They tend to be less judgmental and are less harmful than humans. If they kill, it's never just for the sake of killing. And if they attack, it's because they feel the need to defend themselves. Humans aren't like that. Humans kill for sport and attack for no good reason."

Her words were dark and heavy, and held a deeper meaning to them. They were becoming more curious about this girl's past all the time.

"Alaude, do you mind working with our guest the day after tomorrow instead?" Giotto suddenly asked.

The beige haired man raised an eyebrow as if to say 'and why would I want to do that?'

"I think it'd be nice to show Lily around town without the worry of an attacking family." The blond turned and smiled warmly at the girl. "What do you think?"

'_I'd like to see the town without all the chaos and destruction, but that would also mean letting every family that has a spy watching that there's a new girl and potential target with the Vongola,_' Lily debated within the safety of her mind. "Well…It _sounds_ nice…"

The blond smiled. "Then we'll go into town tomorrow and Alaude can test out your abilities the next day instead."

Lily couldn't honestly say which one she looked forward to the least.

* * *

**Hm. Town scene won't be too long. But yay! This chapter had more of the first gen! That should be happening more now, especially as we tread into further chapters. You also got to see some more of Lily's abilities, or lack there of, as well as some of her future fighting styles!**

**So what did you think of this chapter?**

**Reviews are lovely and are the reason chapters have been coming out quickly!**


	7. Ch 7 A Magnet for Trouble

**Hoorah! Another chapter! I've decided to pace myself because summer (and more importantly, finals) are coming and I tend to get really busy around then. So to make sure I can update on time, I shall be sticking to one chapter a week...unless I can't help myself and the reviews are just too awesome to resist sneaking an extra one...Yeah, I'm not good with those types of promises. You guys just make it difficult with all your wonderful reviews!**

**So a big thank you is in order for: YuujouKami, xxtoushirou, Alexandria Voulturi, anna the viking XD, Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, and April Marciona! You guys are great!**

**I also want to thank the adds and favs!**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 7 A Magnet for Trouble

Lily sat up with a start. She looked around quickly, scanning for any signs of danger before forcing herself to take deep breaths and to calm down. She pressed a hand over her eyes as she tried to shake the uneasy feeling scratching at her gut. Her nightmare had left her shaken and feeling completely vulnerable. Actually it had only been the second part that scared her so badly. It told her that her past was going to be dredged up in one of the worst ways possible. The first part of her nightmare had been bad, but it felt more like a premonition than anything else. She had, had dreams like that before where she would see something she had never seen before, then the next day or even several months later she would see that same scene. But she usually just chalked it all up to déjà vu. The first part of her nightmare felt like one of those dreams, yet she found herself hoping that it wasn't going to come to life because there was still a lot of pain involved, though she couldn't feel it properly like she felt the gunshot wound.

When Lily finally looked up, she realized that it was in the early, _early_ hours of the morning. As in, the ones she usually avoided in favor of another few hours of sleep. The sky was just starting to turn blue with a little orange on the lower edges of the horizon. And while it was sort of invigorating and refreshing to look at, the images of Lily's dream was still flashing through her mind.

Deciding that she needed to work off a little steam and anxiety, Lily got up and dressed herself in capri sweatpants and a tank top so that she could go for an early morning jog. She'd have to run through the forest since what she was wearing was considered indecent to the people of this time, but that would probably fit her best right now since she didn't want to see anyone. The raven haired girl popped open her window wide open and hopped out. She jogged a distance into the forest before stretching and heading off. It felt great to work her muscles and to run through such beautiful scenery unperturbed. The only problem was that it seemed to take twice as much running to work herself into a good sweat, which was strange because Lily knew that she could only run about three miles with an even breath. But eventually she started to get to the point she desired and decided that it would be wise to turn back.

However, on route back to the mansion, Lily chanced upon a trapped bear. It was roaring in pain with its foot trapped under a fallen tree, her cub whimpering by her side. When the poor creature noticed Lily, she roared and tried to scare the human away. But Lily took a few steps forward to get a better look at the bear's situation. With a nod, she ran off and grabbed a sturdy branch and a decent size small boulder. She placed the rock close to the nearest end of the tree and bear, then shoved the branch under the other end of the trunk.

"If I place the fulcrum close to the weighted end, then I should have the optimal lifting capability," Lily muttered and with a grunt she pushed down on the other end with all her might.

Just because she was a whole lot stronger than her usual self, it seemed that lifting a tree was still out of her league. But the bear needed her help, so she was going to give it her all. After all, she couldn't just let the mama bear die and leave her cub behind. The bear seemed to realize what Lily was doing because she stopped trying to bat the girl away and focused on her back paw once more. The raven haired girl gave another almighty push, just as the bear gave a great tug on her foot, and the two managed to get her free.

Lily fell onto her butt panting and observed the mama and her cub reunite. She figured that now that the bear was free, they would both go running off as far away from the human as possible. But the mama bear surprised her by plodding over. Lily stiffened, expecting the bear to attack. But the mama bear sniffed the girl and then licked her. The cub also climbed onto her lap and licked her face as well.

"Ew! Knock it off you two! That's gross!" But Lily smiled as she wiped off her face. "But I'm glad I could help. Do you want me to bandage your paw for you?"

The mama bear shook her head.

Lily hummed a little and ruffed the fur on top of the now hyperactive cub's head. "Is it okay if I come up with a name to call you two? Even if we never see each other again, it'd be nice to have a name to remember you by."

The mama bear nodded once and her cub rubbed his head into the crook of the girl's neck.

"Okay! Hmmm~…Then I'll call you Honey," Lily nodded to the mama then turned toward her cub, "and you can be Charlie!"

The cub gave the girl a little baby growl and nuzzled the girl again before climbing off and going back to his mother.

'_Only in an anime could a human like me gain the trust and become friends with animals like this._' Lily smiled and placed a hand on the older bear's forehead and rubbed the surprisingly soft fur. "You should get going with your day. I'm sure you have lots to do. But if you ever want to, feel free to visit me! I find that most of the time I like the company of animals more than humans. You guys don't judge based on appearances and you lead a simpler sort of lifestyle."

The bear seemed to smirk, but nodded and headed off.

"Alright! Now to build the emotional wall against judgmental old villagers who won't approve of me!" Lily pumped a fist into the air and took off again.

After getting cleaned up and dressed, Lily traveled down to the kitchens to eat breakfast. She was horrified to see Alaude sitting by the counter drinking from a small cup. She would have backtracked and asked a maid to get her something, but the man had spotted her the moment she walked in. So now Lily was frozen stiff by the door, trying hard not to react with that critical gaze on her.

"Erm…Hi…" Lily said awkwardly.

Alaude just closed his eyes and looked away, to the girl's relief.

Lily moved robotically and took the seat farthest from the man, eating her breakfast in a way that she hoped didn't look too hurried.

"After you get back from town, report to my office." Alaude stood up and left before the other had time to respond.

"Ah…" Lily just gaped. '_What the hell was _that_ all about?_' She sighed and finished up her breakfast.

But as she was heading out to look for the blond leader, she passed by the conference room and heard something interesting. As in someone was translating wrong interesting. Despite knowing that it was rude and probably life threatening if she eavesdropped on an important meeting between mafia bosses, Lily backtracked a little and stood next to the door.

"(Chinese) Vongola Primo has proposed to lower the price to only ¥10,000 and no less," A man said to the wealthy man seated across from Giotto.

The man stroked his beard and studied the other boss in front of him. "(Chinese) Then I suppose that shall be good enough."

Lily opened the door silently and leaned against the frame. "(Chinese) I wouldn't listen to that translator if I were you sir."

The group looked up and around at the girl.

Giotto raised an eyebrow at the girl. "(Italian) What are you doing here Lily?"

"(Chinese) Who are you?" The Asian boss asked.

"(Chinese) No one of importance. But you should know that the number Vongola Primo agreed to translates to ¥8,000 not 10,000. From the looks of it, your translator is trying to make a profit through your business dealings and he's probably gotten away with it so far. Does anyone see him buying this and living a life he shouldn't really afford? Though I'm sure you pay him well, there is still a limit to how much he should be able to have money for."

"(Chinese) How dare you, you insolent woman!" The translator hissed.

"(Chinese) You'd be even more foolish if you thought I was inferior to you. I'm positive that I have more knowledge than you, not to mention essential life skills," Lily said coldly.

"(Italian) Oi! Lily, knock it off," G said firmly.

The black haired girl shook her head. "(Italian) Hold on. This guy has been translating wrong so that he can make a profit." She turned back to the other boss. "(Chinese) I mean you no disrespect, but I would advise you to get a new translator. Vongola Primo would not be so inconsiderate and unfair with his business dealings. I may think he's a bit of an idiot, but I know he is a good man who gives more than he really should to benefit others."

The other boss stroked his beard thoughtfully. "(Chinese) I believe you girl. I've been suspicious of Li here for a long time. I thank you for giving me the proof I needed."

Lily's eyebrows shot up. "(Chinese) You mean, you actually believe me even though I'm a woman?"

The old man chuckled. "(Chinese) I have lived long enough to know that even a woman will have a sharp mind, and a few will have even a sharper mind than any man. I can tell by your eyes that you have a strong mind and body. I assume that is the reason that these men," he gestured toward Giotto and G, "trust you enough to deal with this situation."

Lily eased into a smile. "(Chinese) Thank you for your trust."

"(Italian) How dare you, you lowly woman!" The translator dove forward to attack, but his movements were slow and clumsy showing that, despite his relatively high status, he had been living a life of luxury and ease.

Lily dodged his blow easily, spinning around to elbow his stomach, then continuing the motion to shove the heel of her palm into his nose. But she froze just before she hit and released the man, allowing him to stumble back a few paces. "(Chinese) You should be more careful. I almost killed you there."

The man would have tried attacking her again, but a couple of the Chinese Boss' bodyguards stepped forward and restrained him.

"(Chinese) I apologize. I had not expected that reaction." The old man nodded his head forward a little.

But Lily smirked. "(Chinese) I think you did. But you let him so that you could see a bit of my combat ability, no?"

But the old man just chuckled.

"(Chinese) If there is ever the chance, I would love to sit down and have tea with you. I love talking to elders, they always have the most amusing stories and life lessons, and you seem like a good companion to play mahjong with."

It was the elder's turn to raise his eyebrows. "You know mahjong? Are you any good? I'm always looking for a new challenge."

"(Chinese) Well, I'm really just a novice still. But I could give it my best," Lily said humbly.

The old man laughed. "You're an amusing one. You must come to visit my palace sometime! I'm sure my sons and daughters would like your company! You can tell the Vongola that I agree with his price and he has my alliance for sure now."

The raven haired girl smiled brightly. "(Chinese) Really? Thank you very much! Ah! By the way, my name is Lily Hong."

"My name is Chen Wáng."

Lily nodded and turned to the confused Primo and storm guardian. "(Italian) Mr. Wáng has not only agreed to your price for whatever it is you were talking about, but he says that you also have his alliance now."

The duo's eyebrows shot up. But G was the first to recover from shock and answer while Giotto just studied the raven haired girl curiously. "Really? I guess we can ask after this, just tell him that we're very thankful and we'll contact him soon about the formal matters of the alliance."

Lily nodded and translated what the red head had just said to the old man, who nodded then announced that it was time for him to leave, as he had other matters he had to attend to that day. Lily stood up and bowed, allowing the man to leave with the promise that they would play a game and sit down for a cup of tea soon.

"So what exactly happened just now?" G asked dubiously. "We've been trying to get him to form an alliance with us for over a year now, but we've only managed a few business dealings."

Lily shrugged. "Guess he liked me."

"Can you translate everything said between the three of you?" Giotto inquired, still studying the girl. It was almost as if he was trying to decide something.

"Sure, just don't ask again an hour from now." Lily proceeded to tell the duo everything that was said the moment she first heard their conversation and stepped in. "I really wasn't planning on listening in. I was actually on my way to your office, but when I heard the numbers being translated so far off, I really just had to step in."

"Well, thank you for that." G smiled softly. "It's good to know that someone was able to step in just in time."

"I'm just glad he believed me. I know how Asian cultures look down on females, so I thought he might try to kill me for my insolence," Lily said dreadfully.

G shook his head. "I can't believe you didn't think of that until now."

Lily rolled her eyes, but before she could say her witty retort, Primo cut in.

"I'd like you to be my translator for now on." The blond kept his eyes on the girl to gauge her reaction.

"…Hah?" Lily deadpanned.

The sky guardian chuckled. It was amusing to watch such a usually wordy person become incapable of even the simplest forms of speech. "You have a fair number of languages under your belt, many of which even my guardians don't know, and it would be beneficial to my famiglia if I didn't have to use temporary interpreters or rely on the other famiglia's translator to decipher everything for me. It has proven time and time again to be a mistake on my part to do so, as you demonstrated today."

The raven haired girl just continued to stare at the man with an blank, if not slightly bored, expression "No."

"And why not?" The blond asked calmly.

"Honestly, I also think it would be a good idea," G agreed.

"I've run about 127 scenarios of what could happen through my head, and 86 percent of the time I ended up dead or heavily wounded," Lily told the men expressionlessly. "It wouldn't be a good idea for a woman to take that place. It doesn't matter if I can fight. I'm not bullet proof, nor am I capable of living through multiple stab wounds. There's also the case that many of your business dealings will not be as agreeable as they were before and you would lose many alliances. I may have free reign to do what I want here and where I came from, but it would be foolish to think that I had that same privilege everywhere else in the world."

"I think we could handle those situations well enough. Besides, you have proven that you can take care of yourself just fine. Or did you not notice the poisoned blade in that Li man's sleeve?" Giotto pointed out.

Lily nodded hesitantly. "I saw it. That's why I knocked his arm back when I rolled into him to strike his stomach."

The blond nodded. "You see. As for the bullets, G is with me more often than not, especially since I don't have a Consigliere, and he is more than capable of taking out any potential threats before they get the chance to act. You also showed that you just as good as any man, if not more so, and I'm sure that you can prove that once again like you did today."

Lily grimaced. "That position is suicidal…But," she sighed heavily because of what she was about to do, "because I hate owing people or getting something without paying properly, I'll do it. That way I'm not staying here for free anymore."

The sky guardian and his right hand man smiled warmly.

Lily sighed. "I hope I don't come to regret this."

Giotto chuckled. "We'll make sure you won't. Now let's head to town. I'm sure there are plenty who would like to personally thank you for your help nearly a week ago."

"Right, right." Lily waved them away casually. But when their backs were turned, she frowned. She had a sense of foreboding about going back to that town. Normally her dreams would have disappeared by now. But both of her nightmares were still sticking to her, and that was a bad sign on its own. However, she didn't know how to put the feeling into words without sounding foolish, so she kept her worries to herself. She would just have to be extra vigilant and try not to get separated from the others.

That last thought proved to be nearly impossible, because the moment they stepped into town, their group was practically mobbed and Lily was pulled into many handshakes and kisses by the townsfolk. And while she wasn't afraid of contact or closed spaces, this amount of crowding was going to drive her insane.

"So what's your name?"

"Where did you come from?"

"We are all eternally grateful!"

"Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"How old are you?"

"Are you married?"

"Did you always Primo and the others?"

"Thank you for all your help!"

"How is it that you can speak Italian now?"

"I…I…" Lily didn't know where to start, and it didn't look like she would get a chance anytime soon either. Her eyebrow twitched a little in annoyance. She was sorely tempted to switch to another language just so they would leave her alone, or at least take the time to ask Primo and the others one by one so that their questions could be translated. Then again, she could always just run away and feign a fear of being surrounded…Running away sounded nice.

But before the girl could attempt a hasty retreat, Giotto decided to jump in. "Calm down everyone, it's not like she's going to suddenly disappear anytime soon. Maybe we should try this again."

"Or I could just answer everything all at once," Lily piped up. She took a deep (and dramatic) breath before beginning. "My name is Lily Hong; I came from somewhere really, really, really far away; You don't have to thank me, I wanted to help; I learned how to fight a number of years ago and I learned from a lot of different people; I'm 18 now, but I'll be 19 soon; I'm not married, and I'm not looking for such a relationship at this point; I only just met Vongola Primo and company the same day your town was attacked; Again, please don't thank me. I couldn't just stand by and watch all of you get hurt; And I know so many languages that I forgot, plus I forgot that I wasn't in France anymore," Lily finished answering in a rush and all in one breath. She kept her answers vague as possible, only lying when she had to.

It was then that the children took over and pulled her away before any of the other adults could continue to bombard her with questions. They pointed to where they wanted to go, laughing and giggling, all of them happy that they had a new playmate and story teller. The kids ran ahead knowing that the girl knew where she was going and would meet them at the fountain at her own pace. In a few moments the girl was left eerily alone as she traversed over to the center of town where the kids were waiting for her. Everything was going smoothly, too well in fact.

So when Lily was thrown and pinned to an alley wall, she knew she was in trouble…again.

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**It seems that I have left you with another cliffhanger again...sorry about that. ^^"**

**Well, I hope you liked this chapter despite that!**

**Reviews are lovely!**


	8. Ch 8 Reality Sets In

**I have an extra long chapter for you! So yay! This was also a rather quick update, but I think I'll try to update this story on Monday's.**

**I'd like to say a mega big special thank you to: Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, MusicOfMadness, anna the viking XD, xxtoushirou, YuujouKami, Alexandria Volturi for reviewing! You guys are the greatest!**

**A thank you is also in order for all the favs and adds!**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 8 Reality Sets In

"Ah, I know you," Lily sighed. "You must be the cousin of the brick wall in that ally I fought several times in a few years ago. Nice to make your acquaintance." The girl patted the wall.

"Are you sure this girl isn't delusional?"

"Maybe you slammed her into the wall a bit too hard Adrian."

The man holding Lily against the wall growled a little. "Shut up. We've got the girl so let's head back."

"Hmmm, yeah getting kidnapped wasn't on my agenda for today. Why don't you make an appointment and I'll try to fit you in," Lily said emotionlessly. She then reached up and twisted her hands in opposite directions, giving him a horrible Indian burn on the man's forearm. The man yelped and dropped the girl, who immediately stunned the man with a swift chop to the back of his head. "Wanna explain to me why I received such an uncalled for assault?"

"Hold it Vongola's new hitman. Our boss just wants to talk with you." One of the men stepped forward a little, but kept a defensive stance.

Lily took a quick head count. '_One against twelve, fuuuun~,_' she thought sarcastically. "And if I were to refuse, you'd probably try to take me in by force right?"

The man smirked. "I'm glad you understand."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Of course I would. What else could your poor attempt to corner me mean? In any case, it's _you_ who doesn't understand. I just said that you'd probably _try_ to take me in by force. I never said you actually could."

"Cocky wench!" The man roared and lunged for an attack. But his anger made him sloppy and easier for Lily to take down with a swift elbow to his stomach, followed by a kick to his back that sent him flying into the wall.

"Anyone else?" Lily asked. She wanted the others to become angry as well, because that emotion tended to make more openings and a sloppier defense. One of the rules of fighting was to try to use the opponent's emotions against them.

However, this technique only really worked with hand-to-hand combat. So the moment they started reaching for their guns, Lily had to dive right in. She lamented over the fact that she didn't have more time to study and practice fighting with the new pressure point sets that she learned, seeing as it would have come in handy with this bought of mobsters.

"Lily!"

The girl turned around just in time to push Lampo to the ground before he could get shot. She hissed as the bullet grazed her thigh and sat up angrily. "Why am I always getting shot! What the heck man! Don't you know how to pull off a proper kidnapping! You don't want to _kill_ you target you morons! If you're going to attack, then you need to incapacitate your target. What idiot fires a gun! What part of 'bring them in _alive_' do you not understand? Idiots! Absolutely stupid! Complete Neanderthals!"

Apparently calling a bunch of thugs 'idiots' repeatedly isn't the smartest idea and makes them rather angry and more volatile when attacking. So it really shouldn't have surprised Lily when they started firing more rounds combined with their punches.

"Do me a favor and go get some help," Lily called out to Lampo while dodging a few rounds and returning a few of her own attacks. "I'm sure Alaude would like to interrogate them, and I really don't feel like fighting."

Lampo nodded and scrambled off to get the others. Just as he disappeared from sight, one of the men managed to land a solid blow and knock Lily back into the wall. She grunted in pain and tried to get up, but the man who hit her grabbed her arm and twisted it violently until there was a sickening pop. Lily cried out in pain, her shoulder dislocated. She kicked the guys legs out from under him and collapsed to the ground holding her injured arm.

'_This is insane! This level of pain shouldn't be possible in my dreams! Even the ones I had last night I didn't feel anything and there was obviously a great deal of injuries on my person, but this…I think this may actually be real…I'm actually stuck in the past of this world… Son of a-!_' Lily panted and glanced at her now useless arm. She closed and eye and grimaced. '_I can't think about that right now. I have to get my arm back in working order. How do you pop your shoulder back in again? Hold arm out, then clench hand into fist and turn clockwise slowly…_' She nearly screamed in pain again when her arm popped back in. But she didn't have time to allow herself to relax because there were still at least seven men left standing.

Ignoring the pain in her leg, she swung around and placed a powerful round house kick that knocked three of the remaining mobsters down. But a slight punch to her injured shoulder sent the girl stumbling back in pain again. She hissed and cussed a little, sending a glare toward her attackers who returned her look with a triumphant smirk of their own.

But their victory was short lived as a second later they were all gunned down by precisely placed shots by a serious looking G. Primo, Asari, Knuckles, and Lampo stood behind him.

"See, that's exactly what I was talking about! Guns just aren't very kidnapping friendly," Lily said with weary smugness to the men laying limp on the ground, though she carefully avoided looking at any of the more fatally wounded ones.

"Are you okay?" Asari asked, placing a gentle hand on the shoulder the girl wasn't holding and glancing at her bleeding leg.

"Other than the searing pain from my dislocated then relocated shoulder and leg, I'm just dandy," Lily said with fake sweetness to emphasize her sarcasm.

The others chuckled and Knuckles came over to heal the girl's open wound.

Lily sighed in relief. "Thanks. Don't bother with my shoulder, there's nothing you can do for that one. I'm just going to have to put my arm in a sling and deal with the soreness for a few days."

"Were you able to find out what they wanted?" G asked, nudging one of the unconscious thugs.

"They said their boss wanted to talk to me and if I remember correctly, the insignia tattooed onto the back of their elbows implies that they're from the Nero Lupo Famiglia." Lily rolled her shoulder to try to loosen it up a little, only to grimace again.

"I thought you didn't know any families," Lampo commented.

"I didn't. But after going through all those stupid documents and reorganizing them for Primo, as well as the number of books I've read in your library, I've started to pick up a few things." Lily swore a little when her arm bumped the wall as she stood up. "It seems that I've unintentionally drawn a lot of attention to myself. In any case, you'll have to ask Adrian there for more info. I only hit him on the back of the head lightly, so he should be getting up pretty soon." She sighed again.

"Something else is bothering you." It wasn't a question, the sky guardian could tell even without his hyper intuition.

Lily pinched the bridge of her nose. "I should thank my lucky stars that I've been in so many street fights, otherwise I wouldn't have fared so well since my experience and pain tolerance would be so crappy. But this has also told me that this is all for real and I'm not imagining things as I had hoped. Then there's the other part of, _Why the hell can't I go one day through this town without getting shot?_"

It wasn't really appropriate, but the guardian's couldn't help but laugh at the outraged face Lily was making.

"That's not funny!" Lily raged in a whiney tone, waving her uninjured arm in the air. She would have ranted more, but the first guy who attacked her groaned as he started waking him up. Suddenly feeling the urge to blow off more steam, Lily pulled her foot back with the intent of kicking the kicking the man right where it counts, but she was stopped just before she could make contact.

"We need this guy coherent if we want answers," Giotto said hastily, pulling the girl away.

Lily clicked her tongue in irritation and looked away with her eyes close, wishing that she could also cross her arms. She watched disdainfully as Asari, Knuckles, and Lampo took the remaining men away for interrogation.

"You definitely look worse for wear," a familiar arrogant voice said behind the group, who looked around just in time to see Elena whack Daemon for his less than kind comment.

"We came to accompany you guys through town today, but it seems we may have missed something." Elena sent a concerned glance toward the battered girl. "What exactly happened?"

Lily rolled her eyes when the red head and blond looked over at her, implying that they wanted her to explain. "The kids wanted me to play with them. But since I wasn't walking fast enough, I told them to run ahead. Then I got ambushed in the alley and met a new wall to make friends with."

The men dead panned. Her words were so ridiculous, but her tone was so serious. The two blondes smiled, but it was definitely strained.

"Anyways, like I said earlier, they said their boss wanted to talk with me." Lily snapped her fingers as she remembered something. "They also called me Vongola's new hitman. Did I ever give that impression? 'Cause I thought I was more of the innocent bystander who can't stand others picking on the weak, like in 'The Dark Night' or Clint Eastwood or something. Ah, never mind that last part," Lily amended when she received a round of questioning eyebrows.

"Well, I wouldn't necessarily say hitman. Then again, we didn't exactly get to see you fight." G shrugged.

Giotto laughed nervously. "I guess you staying with us didn't help very much."

Lily heaved a heavy sigh and started pounding her head against the wall. "First I have all that I knew to be factual get thrown back in my face, now I'm being labeled all of this nonsense. What the heck did I do to piss fate off?" She sighed again and cloud of depression descended. "Then again, this could very well be karma coming back to bite me in the asymptote."

The other four sweat dropped at the girl's swing of emotions.

"Perhaps we should continue this another day, _after_ you can get some training in so this doesn't happen…as…often…" The blond trailed off when he realized that the last part wasn't helping.

"Ack!" Lily jumped up suddenly. "This is really, really bad."

"What's wrong?" G asked warily.

"Alaude told me to go to his office once I came back from town," Lily said dreadfully, clutching the sides of her face. "Oh me gosh, what if he wants to fight? I'm going to die. I can't even put up a decent fight like this! _Why me_?"

"He might not want to fight you," Primo reasoned. "He may just want help with his share of paperwork. Being the head of an outside organization, I'm sure he also has a lot."

"You're _really_ not helping," Lily deadpanned. She sighed again. "I'm beginning to wonder which one is worse, paperwork or fighting."

All the girl received was a sympathetic pat on the shoulder from the others.

* * *

Lily never thought a pair of wooded doors could be so intimidating. Maybe if she walked away and hid in Primo's office till late at night, then Alaude would give up on her ever coming. She could always just say that the blond made her help with more paperwork, which wasn't technically a lie. He did give her a hefty stack to work on later…

Just as Lily had worked up enough courage to raise her hand to possibly knock on the door, it swung open to reveal the last person Lily wanted to see at that moment.

"Er…Yo…" Lily opened her hand in an awkward motionless wave. She was tugged inside and ordered to sit on one of the chairs behind the man's desk. A stack of papers was thrown into her lap the moment she was seated. "Er…What's this?"

"A portion of the employees working here. Memorize their information and return for more when you're finished." Alaude didn't bother to look at her and continued his own work.

Lily's eyes twitched. "Primo has me doing the same thing, so isn't it a bit redundant to study the same thing twice?"

"Those are the lower rank who works for me, not the Vongola."

"Ah…Are you sure it's safe to trust someone so new with this sort of info? I'm pretty sure that if I was a spy, then I could probably find a way to use this against you."

Alaude looked up and smirked. "But a spy would not give away that they could use that information."

"I could be using reverse psychology," Lily reasoned.

But the man ignored her. "In any case, they are just members of the lower rank. You knowing everything about them won't affect the stronger branches. I need to test your capacity for information as well as your fighting prowess if I am to determine whether or not you can be of use to us."

"I'm only one person. If both you and Primo are asking me to do all of this at the same time…well, I'm not sure I could handle it." This was a lie. So far, the level of difficulty averaged to about one AP (Advance Placement) class, and she took three her junior (second to last) year and two her last year of high school, not to mention the college classes she took on top of those. However, she didn't like how they trusted her so easily. She had long since learned that it was unwise to trust others so openly. And usually, so much trust usually came with a price, and she wasn't about to jump into anything without knowing all the angles.

"You have already displayed a great deal of intellectual ability, so your lies are useless. Make sure that you have finished memorizing everything by next week's training session. Seeing as you got yourself injured again, I'll allow you one week of rest. You are dismissed."

Lily gaped at the man. This was absolutely ridiculous! She wanted to sock the arrogant jerk in the face, but her wounds gave a tweak, reminding the girl that she would be utterly pathetic if she did pick a fight with the man. Then again, she'd probably have died anyways. The raven haired girl settled with an irritated huff and left the office. '_Only one week of rest? What an arsh! He's acting like it's my fault for getting injured. How was I supposed to know that I was going to be targeted for helping out that town! This is blasphemy!_' She really wanted to scream in frustration, but the girl managed to down tone it to a heavy sigh.

* * *

That night, during dinner, Lily took note of the bad diet combo again. She had spoken to all of them more than once about a healthier diet, but so far only a couple had taken what she said into account. And a few days later of those sort of meals and she had, had enough. She stopped storming down the hall one afternoon after spending another carb and protein filled lunch with the first generation.

"I can't take it anymore!" Lily shouted to no one in particular, grabbing fistfuls of her hair. She turned around and went back to the kitchen. She'd show them! There are several healthy meals she could create, and they would never know the difference!

* * *

"This meal was made for all of you by Lady Lily. And these desserts were made specifically for each of you," the butler informed the first generation as he set the plates down, each guardian with their own unique dessert.

"Wow, this is really good!" Asari said with a big smile.

"And she complained about us eating unhealthy when she can make something like this," G grumbled, though he chuckled a little.

"So…does it meet your expectations, Masters?" The butler asked hesitantly.

"Of course, this is extremely delicious!" Knuckles called out.

The butler sighed in relief. "I am glad."

"Why do you ask?" Giotto questioned curiously.

"Well, the cooks were a little concerned because she was using the strangest ingredients for those sweets, and while we were sure that they weren't poisonous, we were still concerned about the flavor," the butler informed them. "She made a few for us, but we weren't really sure if we should eat them."

"So basically, you used us as guinea pigs?" G commented.

"No, no, no! Nothing like that!" The butler refuted, though he looked a little nervous.

Giotto chuckled a little bit. "No matter, these are quite delightful."

"What did she use that made all of you so unwilling to try?" Asari asked. He finished off his desert right after Lampo, who was motioning for another dish.

"She mixed in a number of vegetables like spinach, carrots, squash, peas, broccoli, and a few others."

The seven men froze and looked down at their empty plates.

G was the first one to pull himself together. "Really?"

"I didn't taste any of that at all," Giotto agreed.

"Are you sure that's what she used?" Asari asked.

The butler nodded, then excused himself and left.

Knuckles broke out in a fit of hearty laughter. "She has gotten all of you to eat more vegetables after all."

A few others smiled as well before they started to get up and leave.

After bidding the others goodnight, Giotto left the dining room and headed toward the library, where he was sure he'd find their guest. And sure enough, Lily was found sitting by the window, reading a book by the moonlight.

He smiled as he walked up unnoticed. "Thanks for the dessert."

Lily deadpanned. "I didn't do it."

"Oh? I wasn't aware that there was a new pastry chef," Giotto teased. He pulled out a chair and sat down facing the girl and window.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lily continued to deny, refusing to look up from her book.

Giotto ignored this. "Tell me…why are you so ardent about all of us eating healthier?"

There was a pause as Lily considered answering the question or not. "I have a low metabolism. I used to take medicine to help my thyroid, but I was one of the cases that suffered from a lot of the side effects that came with it. Also, once you start those types of medicines, your body starts to rely on it and you can never stop taking them. So I stopped taking the medicine and focused on a more natural diet and exercise plan. However, I know that I have a really bad sweet tooth and I didn't want to have to live without my favorite desserts, so I spent a long time experimenting till I found the right balance of vegetables to counterbalance the sugar I was ingesting."

Lily paused again as she flipped the page. "The reason I'm trying to get you guys to eat healthier as well, is because…well, as an important figure once said, 'I've seen few die of hunger, of eating, a hundred thousand.' Meaning I don't want the reason any of you die be because you didn't take proper care of yourselves. Life is short enough as it is."

"So how do you exercise?" Giotto asked, curious about the girl in front of him. "I don't think you've ever left the walls of this mansion since that day we took you to town."

"I do a lot of Yoga, tai chi, and other exercises. I also go outside for a nice run in the early hours of the morning, but I have to make sure I'm careful about how I go about everything since I have three major fears in life, though all of them are for a good reason." Lily replied evenly as she flipped another page. "I have a rather severe case of arachnophobia, necrophobia, and apiphobia."

The blond raised an eyebrow in question.

Lily rolled her eyes, but explained. "Meaning, I have a fear of spiders, the fear of dying or loved ones dying, and a fear of bees."

"And how did you develop those fears," Primo questioned. Who knew when the girl would be so willingly to answer questions about herself next. So far she had been extremely vague about answering questions about her past and home.

Lily sighed. "You sure ask a lot of questions." She flipped another page.

"Pardon," Giotto said with a bow of his head. "Perhaps I have gone too far."

Silence permeated the air once more.

"When I was little," Lily said quietly, "I was playing at the park. But one of the older girls didn't like me and pushed me into a ditch. Incidentally, I fell into a huge nest of spiders. The girl laughed and left me there. I was stuck in that hole for nearly an hour before anyone rescued me, and by that point I had been bitten so many times that I needed to go to the hospital. From then on, I could barely stand to be in the same room as a spider."

"That must be difficult," Giotto said softly.

Lily grimaced a little, but didn't disagree. She flipped another page. "The second fear was developed the day my family died."

This surprised the blond. "I thought you had a family waiting for you when you finish this mission or whatever."

"Amy and Dougless are my foster parents," Lily informed the man. "They took me in about five years after my blood related family died. We were going down to visit some of my parents' friends, but got into a horrible wreck. I was the only person who survived. I spent five horrible years going in and out of foster homes. Some of them were terrible and resulted in something I'd rather to forget… I became so afraid that I would lose anyone else precious to me, that I locked myself away. That way I couldn't get hurt anymore. You see, it is not my death that I fear. It is a life without those precious to me."

The blond studied the girl, watching the different emotions that flashed across her eyes, even though her face remained an emotionless mask. He was able to recognize that the girl had lied about something, but decided not to comment on it. "Then what of Amy and Dougless?"

"I didn't open up to them or their two children for over a year. But eventually their kindness and patience wore me down. I ended up yelling at them, asking them why they bothered, and telling them that I wanted nothing to do with them because they would either just send me back into the foster care system or die, leaving me all alone in the end." Lily sighed and flipped another page. "They weren't expecting that response and I ended up getting mobbed in a group hug. Those idiots told me that 'even in death as long as we thought and cared for each other, we'd always be together'."

Giotto smiled. "That's sweet of them. What'd you do after that?"

"I told them that they were overly emotional morons and that I wanted nothing to do with their lovesick idiocy, then stormed out of the house," Lily replied bluntly.

The blond sweat dropped a little. But he recognized that their relationship got closer after that. "And what of your fear of bees?"

"Ah…that one…" Lily looked up from her book, but gazed into the distance with a small frown. "That one is the main reason I haven't stepped out of this building as often or as far away as I'd like…I'm severely allergic to bees. If I get stung by one, there is no doubt that I'll die if not treated properly. And I'd rather hold that off until I can thank my foster family face-to-face."

"Isn't there some sort of medicine that you can take to prevent that?" The blond inquired.

Lily grimaced. "I have something with me, but it's only supposed to be used in emergencies and it would be better if I could get proper treatment. Plus, if I get stung too often, then I will run out of the small supply that I have. Or if I get stung by a horde of bees, then the dosage will not be enough. Ah!" Lily's head snapped up suddenly.

Giotto cocked an eyebrow in curiosity. "Is something a matter?"

Lily shook her head and returned her attention to her book. "No. I just remembered something."

"Oh?" Giotto left the question hanging, leaving Lily free to ignore it if she wished.

Lily paused their conversation. Debating whether it would be alright to tell the man next to her, her last and most crippling fear. "I also suffer a severe case of hemophobia," her words were quiet, less than a whisper.

If it had not been so silent in the library, Giotto might have missed the words entirely. But his ears were sharp and the girl had his full attention. '_Phobia meaning the fear of, and hemo meaning blood._ _Not an unusual fear, but the way she expressed it…What has happened to this person to make her so afraid of the world?_' Giotto had faked ignorance about his knowledge of the words Lily spoke, not to stoke the flames of her ego, but to trick her into conversing with him a little more. But for every answer she gave, ten questions would pop up in his mind.

For now, he would pretend that he hadn't heard her.

* * *

'I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand'

-Benjamin Franklin

**So what did you think of this chapter? You got to learn a little more about Lily and she has also finally started believing that this was all really happening to her. But I hope I was able to get a few chuckles out of you guys. Please tell me your thoughts about this!**

**Reviews are lovely!**


	9. Ch 9 Flight of Fancy

**Alright! So even though it's finals week, I'm bringing you an update! Yay for you guys! I felt like this might be my one last good deed for the rest of my life, as I feel like dropping dead right now. So I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

**I decided to update thanks to the wonderful reviews of: YuujouKami, Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, xxtoushirou, Alexandria Volturi, anna the viking XD, and Sayaka Sakura!**

**But I also thank the favs and adds as well!**

**Okay, here you go!**

* * *

Chapter 9 Flight of Fancy

Lily flexed her arm. '_The amazing world of Anime, where humans can make friends and hold conversations with animals, and where their injuries heal ten times faster!_' Lily shouted in her mind like some sports announcer. She smiled wryly. While she was glad that her shoulder and bullet wounds weren't bothering her anymore, that also meant that she would have to face the pain that Alaude would surely dish out in great amounts later that day.

"I wonder what would happen if I tried to play hooky," Lily mused aloud as she headed to the kitchens for some breakfast.

"Bear!"

"Quick! Shoot it before it can attack!"

Lily backtracked, literally walking backwards, toward the main entrance that she had just passed. She turned her head and looked outside to see a familiar golden brown bear standing on her hind legs about thirty feet away.

"Honey!" Lily ran out and glomped the mama bear before she could get shot, the girl's eyes practically shedding stars. "You came to visit me after all! Where's Charlie?"

Honey huffed and pushed her son out from behind her. Lily immediately let go of the mama bear to cuddle her cub, cooing over their cuteness as a family.

"What's going on?" Primo asked as he neared the entrance along with G. One of the guards pointed toward the guest and the two bears. The two sweat dropped at the girl's little fan girl like moment. "You don't have to worry…Lily seems to have an affinity or something with animals."

The blonde's gaze sharpened when the raven haired girl's expression became serious and she headed out into the forest at a run. He looked over at his child hood friend and they both nodded, heading off at the same time to follow the girl. They caught up just in time to see her jump kick someone out of a tree and into another person hiding on the ground.

"Is he up here?" The girl called down to the bear, completely ignoring the two men she had just taken down. She climbed higher when the mama bear nodded, until she finally located what the bear had asked her to take care of. She held out her hands cautiously as she stared at the injured hawk. "Easy there. I don't want to hurt you. I just want to fix that wing for you. Honey down there asked me to help you."

The hawk shrieked at her and tried to bat the girl away, but winced horribly when he moved his clearly broken wing. He glared reproachfully, expecting the human girl to take advantage of his vulnerable state, but the girl hadn't moved from where she was seated. The mama bear huffed and snorted a little, telling the hawk to accept the girl's help, to which he rolled his eyes. That bear could be so nosy and nag about all the wrong things. But if someone as distrustful of humans as her was willing to trust this human girl, then perhaps he could allow it this one time. He hobbled forward slowly and extended his wing.

Lily smiled and set the hawk's wing as gently as she could, warning him when she had to move the bone a little to realign it. She then wrapped it carefully and offered her arm so that she could carry him down. She laughed lightly when the bird did so with a prideful air. It was almost as if he was saying 'I suppose I could allow you to be in my presence just a little bit longer'.

When she reached the bottom she raised an eyebrow at the two guardians. "Any reason that you're following me?"

"Well, you seem to have the uncanny ability to attract danger, so we felt like it would be in your best interest if you have backup," Giotto told the girl.

Lily grimaced. "Maybe in town, but I've been pretty good out here."

It was G's turn to raise his eyebrow this time. "Oh? And what about those two you took down over there?"

"Huh? Took down? What are you talking about?" Lily looked around to where the two men were pointing to see a couple of strangers lying unconscious, stacked on top of each other. "Who did that?"

"You mean, you seriously didn't notice that you kicked someone out of that tree and into their partner?" G asked incredulously.

"What? No I didn't," Lily argued. "If I kicked someone, I'm sure I would have known about it."

Giotto ignored the arguing and walked over to inspect the two unconscious men. He could tell from a tattoo on their neck that they were from yet another enemy famiglia. He sighed. Alaude would have yet another round of interrogating. He tied the two up and turned back around to see G and Lily still arguing. "Hey, you two. Let's go back in so that we can finally get some breakfast."

Lily broke off the argument in favor of raising an eyebrow at the blond. "Oh? You're actually eating a full meal?

Giotto moved forward back toward the house. "I figured that it would be easiest to catch you in the morning if I went to the dining room.

Lily hummed. "I suppose that would work, but usually I eat in the kitchens."

"Why?" Primo asked. "Is there something wrong with the dining room in the mornings?"

The raven haired girl shrugged. "I'm not really used to eating at a dining table in the mornings. Back home I would eat at my kitchen counter in my apartment then head to school."

"Apartment?" G asked.

"It's a big building that holds a lot of mini homes in them. One mini home usually has a one bedroom, a kitchen, maybe two bathrooms, and a living room," Lily explained. "But if you can get them a little bigger. Amy and Dougless helped pay for mine, so I actually have a pretty decent sized one, even though I'm the only one living in it."

"You live alone? What about your family?" Giotto asked curiously.

"Where I come from, it's not unusual to find people my age living alone. Most of us go off to universities in different states, so we either live in the dorm that the school provides or in our own apartment. It's not like our families are going to follow us around everywhere," Lily clarified for the men.

When the trio broke out of the trees, Primo signaled to one of the guards and asked them to collect the two men that they had left unconscious and take them to Alaude for interrogation. Lily also took this time to head over to near the stables and set up a little living space for the Hawk she had rescued, before heading back to the other two men.

"So why exactly did you need to find me this morning?" She asked the blond man.

"Well, I needed to collect the stack of paperwork I gave you last night and there is also some new files to take care of as well that I would like your assistance with. There's also a meeting tomorrow that I would like you to attend and I need to brief you on it beforehand so that you have an idea of what's going on so that you don't have to ask me for everything." Primo led the way into the dining room and greeted the guardians present.

Lily eyed the man suspiciously. "How much paperwork exactly?"

"Oh, just a few files," the blond said innocently.

"Who did what this time?" Lily moaned, pressing a hand over her eyes.

"Just a few guards this time, nothing major." Though his wording didn't sound so bad, the innocent smile said otherwise.

Lily groaned.

Giotto chuckled. "In any case, I would also like your assistance in creating a new code. You said that you had knowledge of a few that others wouldn't be able to decipher easily, and I'd like to start working on translating everything so that enemies will be unable to gain any information."

The raven haired girl frowned.

"Is something a matter?" Asari asked.

"The level of trust you've in me…is worrisome." Lily's frowned deepened.

It was Knuckles who spoke up this time. "And why is that?"

"You shouldn't trust someone like me so easily. I show up out of nowhere, with no viable background, and just because I assisted some town folk you let me into your home and offer me shelter. I could easily be some killer, capable of charming and convincing others that I'm harmless so that my victims let me into their homes, making it easier for me to kill them. Or I could be some spy and the assisting the town thing could have just been a ruse to gain your trust and allow me to snoop around. I've already seen and memorized a large quantity of your files, and you seem more than okay with sharing even more. How do you know that I'm not just going to sneak away in the middle of the night and tell some big-scary-unknown-boss-man all your secrets?" Lily ranted. "Heck, I could be one of those long term spies, just waiting for the signal to start some secret mission. Some of those cases, the spies are around for years before their main mission is activated! So why the heck are you so okay with everything?"

The guardians looked between each other, as if sharing a quick conference, before turning toward the girl and answering individually.

"Easy," Primo started off.

Alaude:"You're weak.

Daemon:"Too honest for your own good."

G:"I can tell that you're honestly a lousy shot."

Asari:"You have a very kind, candid, and truthful aura, if not a little guarded around others."

Lampo:"Spies don't take the time to learn how to cook sweets."

Knuckles:"Animals don't trust the wicked."

"And you wear your heart on your sleeve," Giotto finished. "Not to mention my intuition tells me that you bear no malicious intent toward us."

"I could just be one amazing spy," Lily pressed. "I'm a very good actor. I've spent more than half my life playing different roles to fit other's needs. I was even able to fool the police and their polygraph. This could just be another big act. After all, I haven't let anyone see the _real_ me in years. I'm sure you would agree, Primo, that someone who is an expert at lying could very well be able to fool your intuition."

"That is a very possible theory, but I have yet to meet a liar of that level, so it is difficult to say for sure." The blond smiled. "And I get the feeling that all the reactions you had when you were surprised were genuine."

"Not to mention that you guard is never up," G mentioned.

"What! It is too!" Lily protested.

Giotto and G raised their eyebrows at her.

"Okay, so _maybe_ I let my guard down around the estate," Lily amended, unwilling to admit that she was as defenseless as they made her out to be. "But that's because I don't really feel the need to be cautious of attacks here. Plus! I've spent the majority of my time believing that this was all in my head, therefore there was no reason to be extra guarded.

"Touché," Giotto agreed with a nod. "But you should understand why we trust you now, correct?"

"No," the girl replied bluntly with a deadpan face. "I'm still a stranger. Even if I don't seem harmful, you still shouldn't be so willing to share some of your secrets, even if it is the minor stuff, with someone like me. Nor should you have appointed me as your translator with just a single intervention on my part.

"Why is it so difficult for you to believe that we trust you?" Asari asked.

"You have proved to us more than a few times that you are a good person, who would be a great ally and an even better friend," Knuckles agreed.

"Humans are fickle!" Lily snapped. "One day they can be your friend, the next they can be the person driving a knife into your back. Trust should be earned, not given out. When given out, there is an ulterior motive. I will not walk into something again without knowing all of the angles and conditions attached!"

"Well, then the situation at hand would be that within the past few months you have earned our trust. Now it is our turn to earn yours," the sky guardian stated calmly.

Lily huffed. "You say that like it's the easiest thing in the world."

The blond shook his head. "I don't. I actually believe that it will probably be one of our most difficult assignments. Especially since a group as weary of others as us, decided to trust you in less than a year, while you have yet to completely lower your walls.

"We are quite aware how capricious people can be, and how they can easily destroy the trust of others. But I think that we are also quite capable of picking out who is wisest to place our friendship in," Asari said calmly.

Lily sighed heavily. "Fools, the lot of you. If I've learned one thing, besides how to use dying will flames and a few more skills for fighting, it's that you're all a bunch of soft naïve suckers. Honestly, I never thought I would allow myself to be surrounded with so many bloody donuts."

A vein popped on Daemon's temple. "Oya? You think so?

Mist flames started to gather around Lily's meal discreetly and transformed her pasta salad (her own recipe given to the head chef) into a gory meal of fresh intestines and body parts.

Lily gazed at her meal in slight amusement, but more annoyance than anything else. She scooped up an eyeball and flicked it at the illusionist, smirking when it made a satisfying squelch against her target. "Take your bloody illusions to someone else. Ha, ha. I made a funny."

At first, Daemon was irritated when the girl flicked her meal at him, but then he realized that she hadn't freaked out. He regarded the girl differently and slightly bemused. "Nufufufu, so you can see though my illusions?"

"What? Those were illusions? I thought those were some sort of cheap party trick," Lily said with completely fake shock while studying her nails.

Another vein popped on the mist guardian's temple. But before he could supply his own witty retort, KeunYoung ran in and growled something at the raven haired girl.

Lily paled as she took in the lioness' information. She shook her head shakily. "I don't think that's a job for me. Ask Knuckles instead."

But the lion wouldn't hear of it and grabbed one of the girl's sleeve in her mouth and tugged the girl towards the door.

"No, wait!" Lily shouted. "It's really not a good idea to send me!"

"Lily, what's wrong?" Giotto asked for the others, who had all followed her out of the room.

"Keun said that someone got really badly injured and needs immediate medical attention. She also said that she thinks that I would be the best person for this job, because it looks like some of the damage should be taken care of a little differently than it normally should and I'm the only one with that knowledge," Lily told the man while trying to get the lion to release her.

"If that's the case, then Knuckles should go," G said.

"That's what I was telling her! Lily said exasperatedly. "But Keun doesn't think so!"

Anything else that could have been said was cut off with a whinny and Lily getting tossed up onto Sirius's back, before galloping off in the direction of the town.

"Stop teaming up against me! That's not fair!" Lily was heard shouting.

* * *

"This isn't good," Lily muttered, pressing a cloth over the villager's wounds while she waited for the materials she asked the others to gather. She tried to suppress the tremors in her hands, as well as the sick feeling building in her stomach.

"Oh my," Knuckles exclaimed softly as he, Asari, G, and Giotto entered the small room. The priest came over immediately, getting ready to administer his sun flames.

"Hold it!" Lily called out. "If you close that wound up now, he's going to have more problems later. A lot of dirt got into that wound and with dirt comes bacteria. I've taken care of the small trace of poison within his system, but I was still waiting on other materials to try to take care of the rest of the wound."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Knuckles asked quickly.

"We don't have the right equipment or medicine for this, so he needs to bleed out and let his blood wash out the wound naturally," Lily said as calmly as she could. She had to stay calm and not let the memories of her past affect her now. The life of this man depended on it.

"But then he'll die of blood loss," the priest objected.

Lily shook her head. "I'll use the cloud flame and propagate his red blood cells."

Knuckles debated, but then decided to follow through. The girl had already proven that she was quite knowledgeable in the medical field. He signaled for G to help, and the two tilted the man onto his side. Lily held a shaky hand over the man's forehead and activated her rain flames to help calm the villager and held the other hand over the man's chest and activated the purple flame, watching carefully to see when the wound was washed out enough of the grime that had gotten inside. Meanwhile, she told Asari to gather the herbs she had asked for and grind them into a smooth salve as quickly as he could.

Lily frowned in concentration, panting a little from the sudden drain of energy. She had to make sure that the oxygenated blood didn't go down the wrong vein, or it could destroy a part of his circulatory system. She also had to make sure that none of the cells beginning to clot was multiplied and sent back into the man's system. It was taking a lot of energy on her part, seeing as she was still new to the whole flame thing (she had only really started to learn how to control the flames a few days ago), but it was something she had to be able to handle. When she was sure it was clean enough, she told the two guardians to lay the man on his back again.

"Now I'm going to multiply his white blood cell count, I have to be careful not to overdo it though," she muttered the last part more to herself than the others.

"Why?" G asked.

Lily didn't bother to look up. "If there are too many, then there's a chance that they'll start attacking his system, thinking that the other cells in his body are a virus or bacteria. I only need to up the count enough to where he'll be able to fight off any infection or disease that got in before he was treated."

Asari came back over with the salve Lily had asked for. She nodded to the man as thanks then spread a small amount on the open wound.

Once she had resumed spreading a small amount of her rain flame to the man, Lily spoke once more. "Alright Knuckles, you can start closing the wound now. Make sure to start with the soft tissue before the muscles and skin. I think a kidney may have been cut, but I wasn't able to get a good look so I can't be completely sure."

The priest nodded and held a hand over the gash while activating his sun flames. As the wound started to close Lily would reach in and rub some of the salve every once in a while until it was completely closed up.

Everyone breathed out a sigh of relief. The wife of the man ran over and hugged Lily and thanked all of them profusely, crying from happiness.

Lily nodded, telling the woman that it was no trouble at all before she excused herself and hurried out of the building. She ran over to the forest as quickly as she could. She could feel her calm and confident exterior falling fast. The moment she passed a few trees she leaned over a bush and heaved, emptying her stomach of its contents.

Eventually there was nothing left and the girl was left exhausted. She tried to walk back out the way she came, but only made it a few steps before she collapsed against a tree. She slid down the trunk and sat, pulling her knees close, still panting from her earlier wave of nauseousness. Lily held her hands out in front of her. She was shaking violently. She hugged herself and tried to ignore the scent of blood that had permeated her clothes and stained her hands.

"Lily?"

The girl snapped her head up to see Giotto watching her a few feet away.

"Are you alright?" The blond asked.

"Fine. Just fine," she replied quickly.

Giotto grimaced. "No…you're not. You're shivering like you've been standing in a blizzard and you look as pale as a sheet. Was that your first time seeing such a serious injury?"

Lily shook her head. "I-I've seen much w-worse."

"Then what is it?" Primo asked gently.

Lily buried her head in her knees. "The blood."

Giotto was confused. "If you've seen worse, then why was the blood so bad?"

Lily wrapped her arms around her knees and squeezed her arms. "I can't stand blood. Not after…not after…" She couldn't bring herself to continue. Her shaking became worse as she recalled the incident that led her to be all alone. She looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Giotto smiled reassuringly and wiped off the tears she didn't know she was crying with his other hand. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me. And you don't have to hold in your tears all the time."

Lily's pained expression eased a little and her tears managed to stop. The girl buried her head into her knees once more.

The blond seated himself next to the girl, allowing her to take the time to calm down. He said nothing else, in favor of leaving the girl her privacy. He knew that she found his presence, more than his words, comforting and that's what she needed right now.

"…Thank you," she muttered softly.

"Anytime," the blond murmured back.

* * *

**Next time (should I survive), you'll get the chance to read a little about the beginning of Lily learning how to summon and control her dying will flames as well as some of her training! There shall also be some other amusing things that you'll have to wait for. Sorry!**

**Reviews are lovely!**


	10. Ch 10 Life Lessons

**I sincerely hope you enjoy this chapter, as this was written while I had (and still have) to deal with a b^*$# of a headache. But I really wanted to get this out to you guys, especially when I got all those wonderful reviews.**

**So there is a BIG THANKS in order for: Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, April Marciano, YuujouKami, xxtoushirou, anna the viking XD, and TheKawaiiStar21!**

**Also a thanks to the adds and favs I got!**

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 10 Life Lessons

**An extra** (except it's at the beginning instead of the end!): Quick look at how Lily's beginning training with her flames went…

First Lesson: With Daemon

Daemon smiled creepily (in Lily's opinion). "I want you to summon a dead corpse with your mist flames."

Lily blinked. Then blinked again. Then laughed. "Do what with a what? How about you start with the basics."

Daemon frowned. "Didn't G already teach you the basics?"

"No. He was teaching me how to use a handgun." Lily rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I mean, I already know the mechanics of the whole flame summoning thing and how it's supposed to work. But applying the actual concept to a real life situation is _way_ different. You have to remember that I'm not used to this whole life energy can do amazing, and frankly impossible, things."

"But you summoned three flames when you came here," the indigo colored hair man reasoned.

Lily shook her head at the man. "That was completely unintentional. There's no way for me to duplicate what happened at that exact moment."

Daemon sighed dramatically. "Fine. Then first off, tell me what you know."

"Well, it's a dying will flame. And to summon it you're supposed to have a strong resolution, correct?"

Daemon nodded.

"And the stronger the resolution, the flame will have a stronger and higher purity."

Daemon sweat dropped. That last one he didn't know, but he doubted the others knew that either.

"But there's the first problem. I don't have resolve for…anything," Lily said uncaringly despite the gravity of her words.

"You don't have ambition for _anything_?" Daemon clarified. "No loved one to protect, or perhaps someone to avenge, or revenge you desire."

"Nope, nadda, zip."

"So what is it exactly that you want to gain in life?" The melon haired man asked, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He had never met someone with such a lack of…life.

"I want to live life for as long as possible doing things that I enjoy, then die either peacefully in my sleep or laughing," the raven haired girl replied aloofly.

Daemon placed his chin between his thumb and index finger, tapping his cheek thoughtfully. "Then, what if I were to kill you right now?"

Lily finally broke her emotionless mask and frowned. "That isn't in my plan."

The blue haired man smirked and summoned his scythe. "Your resolve is to stay alive. So now I'm going to test how far you are willing to take it."

The girl stared at the other in shock, fear slowly creeping into her heart. "You don't really mean…?"

Daemon smiled sinisterly. "If you want to live, then it would be in your best interest to call out your flame."

Lily took a step back, but before she could run, she was surrounded by the man's mist flames. It was now like she was standing amongst floating rocks, thousands of feet up in the air. She walked over to the edge of the platform she was on and looked down. While she knew that this was an illusion, it still felt incredibly real.

Abruptly the edge started to crumble away. Lily jumped back, but upon further inspection, the platform was breaking apart everywhere and slowly working its way in.

"Find my resolve to live, huh?" Lily muttered with an irritated click of the tongue. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to try to focus despite the sound of her impending doom.

'_It may not be very honorable, but my resolve right now rests in my wish to live. There's no one I wish to protect and no one that I want to seek my revenge on. So my life is what I'll have to make do with._'

Lily's stomach gave a jolt when the ground beneath her gave away and she started to fall, but she forced herself to focus. Right now she needed to call out her mist flame if she wanted to live.

'_I don't want to die. I don't want to die. _I don't want to die!' Lily snapped open her eyes. Only a thin coating of mist flame covered her right hand, but hopefully that was just enough. She pulled back her fist, praying that she would be able to make contact with something and get her out of the mist guardian's illusion. She then swung forward with all her might, slamming her fist right into some sort of wall. The barrier she hit cracked and broke apart a little. With a few more hits, there was a hole big enough for Lily to crawl through.

The moment she was out, she collapsed onto the ground and heaved a big breath. "That…was a pain…"

Daemon clapped his hands. "Congratulations, you only spent about three hours in there."

"Three hours!" Lily exclaimed. It felt more like five minutes to her.

The blue haired man nodded. "Even with your lack of ambition, I only expected you to be stuck in there for at least one, maybe two hours. But the strength of your flame was even more pathetic than I had predicted."

A vein popped on Lily's temple, but she couldn't exactly argue with the pompous man. "Don't remind me," she grumbled irritatedly.

"So you're going to have to work on strengthening your flame before we can work on any illusions."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Lily asked, pushing herself into a sitting position.

"I have no idea." Daemon shrugged unhelpfully.

Another vein popped on Lily's temple.

"Anyways, let me know when you're finally strong enough to start working on something." Daemon waved and left, leaving the girl gaping at the man behind.

* * *

Second Lesson: With Alaude

"Oof!" Lily grunted, getting knocked back (hard) and landing on the ground for the umpteenth time since they started. '_Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain,_' chanted through her head as she fought to stay conscious.

"Hey, if I play dead, would you be willing to take a break?" She called out to the beige haired man.

"Up."

She huffed. "Yeah, I thought so." She fought to stand up to go yet another brutal round with the former inspector. She caught the fist that was about to knock her down before she had fully stood.

Alaude smirked. That was only the second blow she had managed to stop since they had started, but it was an improvement. "That's enough. Have you finished with the work I gave you?"

Lily groaned. "I take it back. You can go ahead and kick me around, just don't give me another stack of paperwork. Why do you guys have so many freaking employees? I think my brain is about to burst from all the information and the number of freakin' names I've had to memorize."

Alaude fought another smirk. "There's a series of codes you need to memorize in case I need to tell you something during a conference or event that I don't want anyone else to know. There is also a series of files I want you to organize as well."

Lily's eye started twitching. "I'm getting' the feeling that I'm your guys' new scapegoat to unload a bunch of your work onto."

Alaude didn't bother answering, instead choosing to head back inside.

Lily sighed and pressed a hand over her eyes. "I can already feel that headache coming on."

* * *

Lesson Three: With Asari

"We're going to work on meditating and controlling our flow of energy."

"Wait, wait, wait." Lily held up a hand to stop the man. "So no paperwork?"

Asari smiled in amusement. "No paperwork."

"And no beating me up, right?"

The rain guardian chuckled. "No fighting. I think Alaude and Daemon has done enough damage for a whole month."

Lily clasped her hands, like in prayer, with watery/sparkly eyes and a grateful smile. "I change my mind. You're my favorite guardian! If I was the touchy-feely type, I would've totally hugged you right now."

Asari laughed gently. "Alright, let's start with breathing…"

* * *

Continuation of story, but also several weeks later…

* * *

If looks could kill, then the 'innocent' mountain of papers would have combusted and turned into a smoldering pile of ash several minutes ago. Sadly for Lily, her simple little fantasy did not come to pass, and the evil pieces of paperwork continued to stand as they were, waiting to be processed. She sighed and started to attack the large pile.

'_Where the hell is that blond idiot?_' She questioned herself after a while. She paused and looked around the office, almost as if she was hoping that he'd hop out from some hiding place and start helping her with the ridiculous pile. It was amazing how many files could surmount in the 1800's, considering that there were fewer things to categorize or to take into consideration in Lily's professional opinion.

The raven haired girl heaved another sigh when no blond popped into view to assist her with the monstrosity of a workload, and dove back into the pile. If she worked diligently enough, then perhaps she would finish in time to catch something to eat before that meeting she was being forced to attend.

Several hours later, Lily was massaging her hand and grumbling as she made her way to the front lounge, where Primo was meeting with some other mafia family she couldn't remember the name of from Spain in about ten minutes. Meaning, no lunch for who knows how long. She was definitely going to have her retribution for all of this. But for now she would focus on the task at hand.

Lily brushed out the crinkles in her white dress shirt and black slacks. Nina had apparently transported her work clothes as well, and Lily figured that she should appear a little more formal and presentable for these sorts of things. And since dresses were completely _out_, she figured that Primo should be pleased with this much. It was only right that she was formal as well for these meetings, as it would be rude to the guests otherwise. Though, that didn't stop her from sticking her hair into a messy (but fashionable) bun.

"Right on time," Giotto called softly from behind, having just arrived with G from wherever. "I never considered it before, but a suit works very well for both genders. I'm glad you have something other than your casual attire to wear for these meetings, especially since you won't wear any dresses."

Lily narrowed her. "You're trying to distract me, aren't you?"

"Not if it isn't working," the blond replied playfully.

G raised an eyebrow at the two. "Distract you from what?"

"We should take care of this meeting first, no?" The sky guardian cut in casually before the other could answer.

Lily fumed silently, but followed the other two inside. She put up a polite smile and reached forward to shake the other Don's hand, greeting him on the behalf of the Vongola sky and storm guardians. They then jumped right into business, discussing the different exports like cocoa beans, mining goods, olives, etc. They argued gently about prices and space for their products on the port, as well as the issue of smuggling in their areas of operation. Lily explained the tactical setup she and Primo had come to an agreement to and was able to persuade the Spanish Don for the most part. She discussed with Giotto and G when necessary, but was able to handle the dealings for the most part.

"Thank you for coming all this way yourself to take care of this," Lily said gratefully when they had finished.

"It was no problem at all!" The Spanish Don said jovially. "But I must say that I'm surprised that Vongola Primo here, chose a woman to help him with his business dealings, though I mean you no offense. You have proved to be quite the valuable member."

Lily shook her head. "It's quite alright. I already know my standing in society thanks to my gender. But thank you for your praise." An idea popped into the girl's head and she smiled. "You seem like a fun loving man. Do you mind helping me with a little prank?"

"Oh?" The Don's eyes sparkled mischievously. "And who would the victim of this prank would this be? And why would they deserve it?"

"This idiot," Lily jabbed her thumb at the blond don seated next to her discreetly, "left me to deal with all of his paperwork this morning, and I'm looking for a little payback."

"Do tell!" The Spanish Don urged the girl.

"I was thinking that we could pretend to get into an argument about something. Primo will think that the business dealings have gone sour and he'll start to panic. What do you think?"

The Don stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Simple, but effective. Let's do it!"

The raven haired girl nodded. "Would you like to start off? We don't actually have to say anything insulting to each other. We just have to sound angry."

"Then you can pretend that I've just called you an incompetent woman," the Don said with a condescending smirk.

Lily narrowed her eyes at the man and replied in a threatening tone, "I hope I don't burst out laughing too soon. I _really_ want to savor this."

The two continued and pretty soon they were yelling at each other. The Don slammed his hands on the table and stood up, pointing at the girl and yelling at her. Lily stood up as well and yelled something back.

"Lily calm down!" G called out, trying to pull her away, but she wouldn't budge and kept on yelling at the older man.

"What's going on here?" Giotto asked the girl urgently. "Did he insult you? What has caused you to become so upset?"

But neither broke away from their argument.

"This isn't good," the blond muttered.

"What could have ticked them off so much?" G growled.

The two looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"(Spanish) Sorry, sorry. Their expressions were just _too_ funny." Lily clutched her stomach, a cramp forming from laughing so hard.

But the Spanish don waved her apology away, laughing heartily as well. "We broke our little charade at the same time. Though," he broke into another round of chuckles when he caught sight of the bewildered expression of the Vongola boss and guardian, "you should probably tell them what just happened."

"Let me escort you out first, just in case one of them decides to blow their top." Lily smiled and offered her hand again. "It was a pleasure meeting you sir. I look forward to future visits."

"Yes, you must come by sometime! We have a little ball coming up in a little over half a year's time. May I expect you?"

"Perhaps, I really wouldn't know until I can find out from Primo what's going on exactly."

"Well, I'll put you down until further notice! Good day, Miss Lily." The don bowed in a fluid, but extravagant, flourish of motion and left.

Lily waved with a giggled and watched the man leave. She looked over her shoulder at the two men left behind with a smirk. "Everything went well. That argument was just an act."

G groaned and rubbed his temple. "And why would you do that?"

"Payback for that one ditching me with all that paperwork," the raven girl replied bluntly, pointing at the offender.

The blond chuckled. "I thought so. I may not be fluent, but the bits I caught sounded very out of place for a heated argument."

"Well you could have told _me_ that," G grumbled. He sighed when all he received was an unapologetic chuckle.

"So how is your training going?" The blond asked, redirecting the conversation.

Lily pouted in her head a bit. She had almost been hoping to see the red head at least punch the blond idiot a little. But as the sky guardian's question caught up to her, she frowned. "Not so good. My lack of resolve is making it difficult for me to advance very far. I've only managed light illusions, though I can successfully hide myself. But I can't create anything solid and they're all easily seen through."

"How about regular combat?" Primo asked.

"Ask me again when I can finally go a day without my sides colored purple," Lily replied sarcastically.

"What about your progress with firing a hand gun?" G asked.

"Ooh!" Lily perked up. "I shot the middle of the target yesterday!"

G smiled, pleased that she had finally made some progress. "Alright, now let's try for doing that repeatedly."

The raven haired girl broke out into another round of laughter. "You're asking for a small miracle."

"With that sort of attitude, of course you're not going to make any progress," the storm guardian gripped, leading the way out of the room.

Lily nodded. "I know. But pessimism is a great way to lower people's expectations, so that when I finally reached them, then they'll be more surprised."

Giotto laughed lightly. "I'll meet you guys in the dining room. I have some files to put away."

The two nodded and continued on their way. They conversed about the technical difficulties of Lily's weapon trainings as well as her issues with the mist and cloud guardians. But before they could reach the dining room, they were assaulted by Elena. Well, Lily was anyways.

"Lily dear! I have a few dresses I want you to try!" Elena exclaimed excitedly as she headed down the hall toward the duo.

Faster than they eye could blink, Lily took off out of sight.

"Ah! Where'd she go?" The blond woman asked curiously.

"She doesn't like dresses very much it appears," G informed the woman.

"That's no good. What about that ball the Vongola is hosting three months from now?" Elena looked at the other man in concern.

"We may have to hog tie her and force her into something?" The red head shrugged. "The difficult part is trying to find her. I get the feeling that she can hide pretty well."

"Nufufufu, do you really think so?" Daemon appeared in a shroud of mist, carrying a very unhappy Lily over his shoulder.

"Nooooooooo!" Lily shouted, hitting her fists against the man's back in quick succession. "Unhand me you brute! I refuse to dawn one of those self-deprecating torture devices ever again! No fair! No fair! No fair!"

The trio sweat dropped.

"Self-deprecating torture device?" G asked, unsure if he really wanted an answer.

"Yes! They were created to make woman more helpless since dresses are either too freakin' heavy to fight in or just plain inconvenient! They also make them so tight that you can barely breath and they're always itchy! I hate 'em!" Lily shouted, though her voice was a little strained from the lack of air getting into her system due to the shoulder in her stomach. The girl stopped fighting with a huff, completely exhausted.

"Do I _want_ to know what's going on?" The four of the five looked around to see their male blond companion observing them.

Lily, who didn't have the energy to look up, raised her arm and pointed down at the man carrying her. "All his fault."

Daemon sniffed indignantly and set the girl back on the ground.

"So what exactly happened here?" Giotto asked.

"Well, I wanted Lily to try on a few dresses, but it seems that she's quite adamant against them," Elena told the man with an apologetic smile.

G sighed. "But I have to agree with her on this one. The Vongola are hosting a ball and we can't exactly have her walking around as she is."

"Then don't," Lily said stiffly. "I dislike balls and dances of all kinds. I would prefer to hide out in my room until it's over."

"For three days?" Daemon raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Even if you had your meals delivered to you, the other guests would still surely find out."

Lily shrugged. "Then tell them I'm ill and I'm not capable of getting out of bed or leaving my room."

"Well, perhaps you could create an illusion that you're wearing a dress instead," Primo suggested.

Daemon shook his head and waved his hand in front of him. "That's no good. This girl's abilities are way too weak. Even a monkey could see through them."

A vein popped on Lily's head. "Hey, you should be a little more careful. I've progressed a good deal with my new anti-dying will flames technique. Don't make me go all kick-ass on you."

"You won't have too if I take care of him first," Elena said with a light glare toward the mist guardian.

Lily smirked a little and stuck her tongue childishly at the man.

"If that is the case," Giotto cut in before another argument could ensue. "Then it'll be up to you to bring her up to snuff by time that event rolls around."

Both parties groaned.

"And I'm making this an order for both of you," Primo said seriously.

"Nufufufu, very well Primo," Daemon assented.

"'Tis a bother, but I shall acquiesce your request to the best of my capability," Lily agreed with a nod of her head.

"But what of her training with Alaude and Asari?" Elena asked curiously.

"…Shall I start counting my blessings now?" The younger girl asked sarcastically, already counting on her demise.

* * *

**We are moving closer to the first big baddie, yay!...Well not for Lily, as you'll soon find out.**

**Reviews are lovely and inspire chapters!**


	11. Ch 11 Requirements of a Hit Woman

**Wow, long time. Sorry about that, but an evil plot bunny attacked my mind and drove me into the ground. But at least something managed to come out of all my trouble. So if you have time check out my new story Sentiment is a Sin, it's a reader insert and a few have found it enjoyable.**

**I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to: YuujouKami, TheKawaiiStar21, Alexandria Volturi, xxtoushirou, anna the viking XD, Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, MCRDanime, xxOMGgalxx, and luipyon for reviewing! I was glad to read all of your reviews, and they help inspire new chapters!**

**Hope you enjoy!**

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Chapter 11 Requirements of a Hit Woman

One rare peaceful morning where everyone is having lunch together…

"Liiiiiiitttllee Flllllooooooowweeeeerr~!"

SMASH!

"All _right_! I got her!" Lily cheered, but was cut short as her brain finally started processing the signals coming from the leg that connected with her target. "Yeow!" Lily pulled up and hugged her shin. "What the heck is your head _made_ of?"

"I should be the one asking questions," Nina pouted, sitting up with only a red mark on her forehead. "Is there any particular reason as to why you attacked me?"

"You mean transporting me here against me will wasn't enough?" Lily asked with a cocked eyebrow.

Nina rolled her eyes. "Besides that."

"Then it's because you're an idiot." The raven haired girl crossed her arms and turned away pointedly. "So why'd you come back anyways?"

"Aaw~! Were you worried for me?" Nina cooed.

A vein popped on Lily's temple as she deadpanned. "If that were the case then I would have asked where you'd been this whole time, not why you returned."

"Oh poo," Nina sulked. "Well, in any case, I came to tell you what I've been up to since I left."

"And what was that?" Asari asked politely for the other.

"I've been going around telling all the important famiglias that a new and powerful upcoming hitman, well hit woman, was personally scouted and hired by Vongola Primo!" Nina told the group brightly.

Cue spit take from Lily and choking from multiple others.

"You _did __**what**_?" Lily demanded once she had cleared her lungs of the coffee she had been drinking.

"I told everyone that the new hit woman, who I named the Silver Fox, was just hired by Vongola Primo," Nina reiterated a little slower.

"Oh my candy rocks…I've just had a giant target plastered to the back of my head," the raven haired girl said with a hollow and dread filled voice.

"Maybe not," G said gently. "She said that it was a hit woman named the Silver Fox, but no one knows you by such a name. As far as anyone else knows, you're just our new translator."

"Plus, you have neither silver hair nor eyes," Lampo chipped in. Though he was stating the obvious, it was the obvious that was needed right now.

"Oh yeah! And I told them that the Silver Fox speaks multiple languages and serves more than just a hitman for your famiglia and that it was possible that she may or may not be the new consigliere!" Nina tacked on.

Lily slammed her head down on the table. A cloud of mist flames crept up around her, and then in a blur the girl faded out of sight. Though, the others could still sense she was present, but just barely. She had gotten a lot better with hiding herself.

"Signora Nina, why did you do that to Lily?" Primo asked wearily.

"Because she needs to get stronger faster and for her mission to finish anywhere on time, she needs more attention. Duh~!" The magenta eyed and blue haired woman answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

A repeated banging came from the general area of where Lily was sitting.

"She isn't anywhere near the level to claim such a title," Daemon argued, completely miffed with the situation the woman had created for his student. "She can barely even hold her own in a fight."

"That's not completely true," Alaude (amazingly/surprising) argued.

The male occupants in the room looked over toward their companion. The soft thumb of Lily's head meeting table also stopped.

"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked the other man.

"She refuses to fight me seriously, but I've seen her train on her own," Alaude informed the others while staring at the 'empty spot' where the girl was still seated. "She has become adept with using her new fighting style and her fighting instincts are better than our other workers. I believe she is capable of defeating the child and fight on even terms with the priests and storm."

"Ah, I'd like to negate that point," Lily reappeared with her hand raised. "True, I've been a successful street fighter for a good portion of my life, but hand-to-hand combat will only get me so far here. My lack of flame power would still land me with the short end of the stick."

"What does a stick have anything to do with this?" G questioned, slightly incredulous.

Lily shook her head. "No, no. It's a turn of phrase. It just means the bad end. So no matter how much my physical fighting prowess increases without my flame ability growing as well, I'd still be as good as a sitting duck. And don't hitmen usually use, I don't know, a _gun_!"

"Not always," the sky guardian refuted, "but it would be a good idea to lengthen your range. G, how is she doing with your training?"

G smiled a little. "Much better. She's not always consistent, but we were able to make a good amount of progress. Then again, it would have been pretty pathetic if she hadn't made any progress in the five months she's been here."

"That's okay, feel free to belittle my already well known horrible abilities like I'm not right here, go ahead," Lily said uncaringly with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

"Ooh! Ooh!" Nina jumped in again. "Do you want to hear the backstory I came up with for the name I created?"

"Depends, am I allowed to shoot you first?" The raven haired female asked. Nina shook her head with a giggle. "Then I don't give a rat's ass-umption." Lily scrunched her nose as she fixed her near swear.

"Well," Nina continued anyways, "I came up with the idea that people started calling you the Silver Fox because you are cunning and sly, not only that but when you attack at night, all people can see is a flash of silver from the moon shining off your hair. After I told them the story, people started thinking that they had seen you all over and now you have a really big name for yourself! Isn't that great?"

All the color seemed to drain out of Lily's face. "Oh my g-ah…sh. My life has been dictated and shortened by an idiot with magic. If I even meet the wise ass who thought it would be a good idea to give a complete moron that much power, I swear I'm gonna rip them a new one!"

Lily continued to threaten the unknown person, but the others weren't able to understand as she had gone off into another language in her rage.

Nina giggled and started speaking again despite her…'charge's' ranting. "I think most of them agreed that the Silver Fox has black hair, since I said her hair _reflected_ the moonlight."

Lily froze, her face turning red, then paling, then really red, then really, _really_ red, then with a sigh faded back to normal. She massaged her temples, looking extremely stressed. "Aiya~…headache~." She sighed and stood up. "I was wrong. This is more than I can handle."

"Oh? Where ya goin' little flower?" Nina asked innocently.

Lily didn't answer, choosing to leave the room without looking at anyone else. She hugged her guitar closely to her, like she was trying to find some sort of security from the musical device. She hopped out a hallway window and headed into the forest, no doubt heading to her favorite little clearing.

"Why did you do that?" Giotto asked again, one the girl was gone.

"Because Lily's not going to open up and make any progress unless I push her into a corner," Nina said with a mock serious face. She smiled serenely. "Part of the reason I chose her is because I thought that she needed the most help. Whether she realizes it or not, her heart is crying out for help. And I thought all of you would be able to help her. You should go listen to her play right now. She's actually made a lot more progress with her flames than you would think. Lily was able to find her own way to practice and strengthen her abilities."

The first generation shared a quick conference through a few glances and stood up to follow the girl. They followed their sky guardian till they heard a light strumming and someone singing. They slowed to a stop so that they were still shadowed by the trees. Sitting on the branch overhanging the ledge, was seated Lily playing her guitar and singing. Suddenly a mist flame appeared on the ground below her and slowly took form of a piano, playing and adding to her song. Then they noticed that there was already another guitar on the other side of the tree as well and they could swear that they heard other people humming every so often as well. Then the sounds of violins came in as the forms of the instruments came into being next to the piano. The song was pretty, but sad. It seemed to reflect her solemn mood.

She ended with her eyes closed and a morose sigh. She frowned. "ARG! Stupid depressing song! I came out here to cheer up! Bad Lily! Bad!" She shouted.

The men sweat dropped.

"Happy song! Happy song!" She started strumming another song, but froze before she was too far in, even though it sounded pleasant enough. "Nooooooo~! No stupid love songs either! Don't laugh at me!"

They looked around and spotted the top of a bear as well as lion's head.

"Well then what do _you_ suggest I play?" Lily asked exasperatedly. She grimaced. "What? That one again? I didn't bring Little D with me…You make that sound like it's the easiest thing in the world…Don't give me that look! Tch. You two have gotten pretty cheeky." Lily leaned her guitar against the tree next to her and made a ukulele appear, strumming a relatively quick tempo song.

The others narrowed their eyes when they noticed a group of men creeping out of the shadows toward the girl. Lily looked up with a smirk, but didn't stop playing. She let her song come to an end, then picked up her guitar and started strumming another tune.

Suddenly she wasn't playing her guitar, but behind the group. A few jabs sent at least four of the men to the ground, unable to move anymore. One of the men took out a gun and tried to shoot her, but Lily twisted around and grabbed the man's arm, making him fire at his comrade's limbs. She incapacitated the man once he had run out of bullets. She grabbed a nearby rock and threw it at the farthest enemy, back flipping away from another round of shots. Before they could try to take aim again, Lily disappeared in a cloud of mist. She appeared behind one of the men and placed her rain coated hands over his face, tranquilizing him before tossing him up into a tree and out of sight before his comrades could notice. She repeated this with all but one of the remaining men. Finally she reappeared and swept her leg under the last man, knocking him off his feet.

She pinned him down and pressed a knife she created out of mist flames to his neck. "Any reason you and your men decided to attack me?"

"You're _her_, aren't you?" The man chortled.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "I assure you that I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The Silver Fox that the Vongola hired," the man sneered.

"I think you're confused. I've never heard of this 'Silver fox', are you sure you didn't just make them up?"

"Your lies won't work on me wench! I know a professional hitman when I see 'em!" The man spat.

"Well that would make one of us, since I've never met one before." Lily placed a mist coated finger to the man's temple. "Mikki Lorenzo of the Corvino Famiglia…EH? You're just a new and upcoming family and you have the nerve to attack me for no reason? I oughtta kick your sorry ass into next week, dammit!"

The man's eyes widened dramatically. "H-How?"

"Oh, you mean the reading your mind bit? I wanted payback on Daemon for stuffing me inside one of his illusions for nearly ten hours and decided the best way to do that was blackmail. That technique was in preparation for that, but I hadn't gotten a chance to test it out before, so thank you for that!"

Primo glanced over at his mist guardian with a raised eyebrow. "Ten hours? I said to train her not punish her."

Daemon shrugged. "Nufufufu, if she had taken my illusion seriously then she would have gotten out of it sooner. But I'm glad we came. Now I know that I should have my guard up whenever she gets too close."

"Her aim was a lot better than in practice," G commented.

"Not to mention her combat," Asari added.

"She's not strong, but she should be able to survive the ball next month," Alaude commented.

"Ah! He passed out!" Lily whined. "I didn't get the chance to use my little trick yet! Hey! Wake up! I was trying to scare the crap out of you! You're not allowed to pass out just yet!"

Most of the group sweat dropped. What the heck was up with this girl?

Lily huffed. "Fine, you joy killer. Now, what am I supposed to do with all these-" She froze as she turned around and spotted the majority of the first generation (Lampo and Alaude had already left). She placed one hand on her hip and used the other to cover her eyes. "Sacrebleu."

"Darling, this is so wonderful!" She cheered, appearing out of nowhere and diving forward for a hug. Lily panicked and made herself disappear and reappear behind the woman, who flopped onto the ground. But this seemed to make the woman even happier. "You've progressed even farther than I had hoped with your combat ability! I thought that you were even worse than that dame brunette boy, but you were just hiding it from all of us haven't you! This is perfect!"

Lily sighed heavily. "Shi-zzle." She had been hiding her abilities for just this reason, but her desire to vent some of her pent up anger on the thugs had overrun her awareness of her surroundings.

Lily had, in fact, been training every morning since she started learning how to fight in this dimension. During her morning runs in the forest she had set up a course, which she ran through often (she guessed that it was thanks to being in an anime that she could not only set it up quickly, but keep her activities hidden). It was a wonder how no one noticed that their ammo was being depleted so quickly. She couldn't allow herself to be so weak as to beg for help from the others, now could she? She had also made a very realistic human dummy, which she had drawn in all the pressure points she needed to know and practiced hitting them every day. It was just like back in college, where she had to balance work, school/homework, going to the gym, and everyday necessities. Only here it was a little less since she only had work and homework to deal with.

But it had been over half a year now, so it would be pretty pathetic if she had made only a little progress. On the other hand, Lily was sure that Nina wanted her to progress quickly, so the girl had covered up her abilities. But seriously, even someone with horrible aim (Lily should know, hers is _terrible_) should have been able to make even the slightest progress in a couple of months. And it was already a well-known fact that Lily had been a successful street fighter, so why on earth wouldn't she be able to pick up fighting a little faster?

She sighed again and led the way back to the mansion, collapsing on one of the couches in the lounge she made it back inside. She gave a halfhearted wave to the blonde woman seated across from her.

"Now we just have to pick out a dress for you!" Nina squealed.

Lily deadpanned and held up a hand to stop the woman. "Elena and I already figured out a dress for me to make out of an illusion."

"Oh? Was Elena aware of your abilities?" Daemon inquired.

"Of course. She wanted to see what every single on looked like, so I had to be good enough for her to try each one properly." Suddenly Lily looked like she hadn't slept in a hundred years. "There were so many freaking designs. I almost never want to even _see_ a dress ever again, I had to try so many."

Daemon narrowed his eyes a little. "Oya? So you show my beloved your full capabilities, but not your teacher?"

Lily waved the man's accusations away. "Of course. I like her more and it was either that or actually where one of those horrid…_things_. That and I like her more." Lily intentionally repeated her preference of people as to piss off the illusionist.

Elena giggled. "Girls just understand each other better, that's all dear."

"I like to think that you're a better person," Lily refuted, causing the other woman to giggle again. "Besides, that statement obviously doesn't pertain to everyone. After all, Nina's a woman and I hate her."

"You're so mean, little flower!" Nina cried, hugging her knees in a little corner of woe.

Lily rolled her eyes to this.

"How come you feel the need to hide things from us?" Primo questioned. "We truly do wish to be your friends and we trust you, we have since at least a month after you arrived."

The raven haired girl studied the group with a carefully blank face. They said those things so easily, but how could they possibly know? How could they possibly understand the burn of a betrayal, when they had yet to experience the full blast of that feeling? If she had arrived after Daemon's treachery, then they would be more cautious as well. But right now, they go by gut and appearances. She knew that she wasn't as pure as they thought she was. She was just as bad as…

'_No! Don't go there!_' Lily scolded herself with a shake of her head, her eyes noticeably darkening. '_Don't think about that thing! Don't think about that monster!_'

"Lily…" Elena said gently, breaking the girl out of her inner turmoil. "If you don't mind me asking…could you tell us a little about your past?"

The girl's emerald eyes darkened. "Which part? The happy-go-lucky little girl all the way up to age ten, or the 'rebellious' bitch afterwards?"

The group blinked in surprise. Lily had actually cursed out loud without trying to cover it up.

The blond haired woman smiled sadly. "How about the event that caused your belief in mankind to be lost."

Lily sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Then you'd be asking my life story… No. The shadows of my past are mine to tame and conquer. It is not your burden to bear."

"I find that shadows are more easily carried when their weight is shared with others," Daemon told the girl offhandedly.

Lily smiled bitterly and covered her eyes with a hand. "Not when it risks breaking down who you are and everything you ever aimed to be. Besides, I'd rather you judge me by what you have learned so far and not by the darkness of my past. And it's not something I'm proud of, nor take pleasure in remembering."

"Even if there's the chance that we could help those scars that cover your heart so?" Knuckles asked gently.

Lily's gaze unfocused. "Some things are better off left forgotten."

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**Hm...kind of a downer for an ending. But hey! The next chapter is the ball and I have much in store for you! **

**Hope you liked this chapter! Reviews are lovely!**


	12. Ch 12 Relics of the Future

**Yay for updates! Sorry it took me so long. A baby, life, and job interviews have made life a bit more...hectic. And think, this is while school is out! :p**

**Anyways, I want to say a very BIG thank you to: Alexandria Volturi, leena456, TheKawaiiStar21, YuujouKami, xxtoushirou, anna the viking XD, Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, Riolutae, and Guest for reviewing! It means a lot and helps push me through moments of laziness!**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

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Chapter 12 Relics of the Future

'_Keep smiling, Lily. Keep smiling!_' The young raven haired woman chanted through her head again for the umpteenth time that night.

While Lily didn't exactly have a stoic personality, she didn't smile for three hours at a time either. There was also the matter of her feet starting to ache horribly as well. She and Elena had decided that she should where the proper shoes that went with her dress for real so that she would only have to concentrate on making her dress look real and not on the shoes or how it would affect her height. But Lily was starting to regret that decision dearly by this point.

Apparently, no one had considered how popular she would be during the gala that night. Not recognizing her, many automatically assumed that she was one of the Vongola members' lover. But this was soon corrected when the Don from Spain that Lily had pulled a prank on Primo and G with, walked in and loudly proclaimed how happy that the new translator was attending as well. After that, the rumors of the translator rumored to be the new assassin caused several other Dons to approach the girl and volley for her attention. This included a lot of standing around to meet crowds of people, many of them on her own (she swore vengeance on the first generation for ditching her), as well as dancing with just about every male in attendance.

Whenever Lily tried to escape for a little while to sit down and rest her feet, someone would call for her and she would be forced to face the next rush with a small patient smile and hope that this one didn't want a dance as well. Unfortunately, Elena had threatened Lily within an inch of her life that she was not to decline any of the requests for a dance, no matter how much her feet hurt, because it would be like social suicide and went against proper etiquette for women of high status. So here Lily was, now dancing with another male with her fake little smile in place. It was truly lucky that she was such a good actor in the art of lying, or the hosts of the ball would have been in a great deal of trouble.

This particular male, who's name Lily really didn't care about and therefore forgot right after it was spoken, was jabbering away nonstop about how he would make the perfect husband for her and Lily's patience was whittling down to her wits end. Lily was more than happy when the song ended and she was able to step away from the man without appearing rude.

However, when she spotted another man making his way toward her, Lily started to panic a little. She was pretty sure that her feet were bleeding, they were so painful, and more than that she didn't need to hear any more reasons for why she should marry into a family to strengthen the bonds between them and the Vongola to benefit the world or whatever other nonsense they had to say. So she did the only thing she could think of and disappeared.

'_Elena is going to be soooo pissed~_' Lily briefly thought with a shiver of foreboding. But that was a much better prospective rather than having to go through the torture of another dance. She had only learned proper ballroom dancing for this era four days ago for Pete's sake!

The cool air of the gentle breeze was refreshing and ensured that Lily didn't regret her little escape one bit. She walked to the edge of the terrace and leaned forward onto the cold stone railing. She grimaced when she heard the sound of footsteps heading toward here, breaking her small bit of peace.

"How ridiculous that the great Silver Fox has to run away from a little socializing."

Had it not been the voice of a child, Lily may have just committed a very gruesome act of murder. The person who had spoken was one of the few children that was brought along to either introduce them to the Vongola or try to enter them into an apprenticeship with the family. This child in particular was one of the more interesting and irritating ones in Lily's opinion. He was not afraid to badmouth any of the seemingly lower members at the party. It would have been endearing if the brat had not decided to take an obvious disliking to the raven girl.

The woman looked around with an amused smile at the child who had followed her out. "Then it's a good thing that I'm not the silver fox then."

The child shook his head in a condescending fashion. "I don't see why you keep denying it when everyone already knows, although it's stupid that they think you're actually somewhat old. It's obvious that you're pretty new to all of this."

"That's because I am. And I'll continue to deny that ridiculous rumor since it isn't true. I'm merely the new translator and I won't be taking on any other job, especially a dangerous one like an assassin." Lily turned back around and propped her head on her palm.

The boy clicked his tongue. "You're such a stupid woman. I don't see why Vongola Primo even bothers with you."

"I wish he didn't bother with me either, then I wouldn't have to deal with all his dang paperwork," Lily grumbled.

"Ha! You really are pathetic if a little desk work bothers you so much," the child chided disdainfully.

"Take a look at the workload and _then_ say that to me. And that's not even counting the work added from Alaude and the other stuff I have to do in a single day." Lily sighed. It really was a pain. She pushed herself away from the counter and began walking away to another portion of the terrace around the corner, hoping that the child would take the hint to go back inside, but like he knew he was irritating her (and he probably did) the child kept following her.

Suddenly movement caught Lily's eye and she reacted automatically, grabbing the arm connected to the fist speeding toward her face and flipping the offender before punching a select few pressure points, successfully knocking the man out.

"And you continue to deny having any connection to the Silver Fox?" The child asked sarcastically.

Lily rolled her eyes and shushed the boy. She pulled him behind a short pillar and crouched behind it. She spotted a group of men crowding around some device that she couldn't make out very well due to the lighting. But it was obvious that it wasn't supposed to be in this time era. Heck, it wasn't supposed to exist for another 400 years.

"That doesn't belong to this time frame," she muttered aloud unconsciously, frowning.

"Careful not to mess up any of the wires or we'll end up blowing ourselves to kingdom Kong instead," one of the men grunted.

Lily turned back to the child. "Listen to me Issac," she whispered urgently. "I need you to go run to Vongola Primo and tell him right away that there are intruders and that they are _extremely_ dangerous."

"Why should I?" The child tried to say indignantly, but there was obvious fear in his voice.

"Hurry!" Lily urged, letting her illusion of a dress disappear. She stepped forward to take away any attention that may have fallen on the child when he made a break for it. "I suggest you stop whatever it is you're doing. I don't think the Vongola would take too kindly to you trespassing and rigging the ball room to explode." She dumped the man she had knocked out moments ago to the ground to emphasize her point.

The man that had instructed the others smirked. "Shows what you know. Boys, show her what you can do."

The men grinned wolfishly and took out small cubes.

Lily's eyes widened. "Box weapons…"

She dodged the storm scythe aimed for her torso. She took out her guns and started firing. Alaude had taught her a neat little trick a few days earlier and had trained her nonstop till she was able to use it consistently, and that was the infusion of cloud flames into the bullets. The little piece of metal multiplied and hit five others on top of her intended target. It wasn't much, but it was enough to make her attackers more cautious and slower to attack. Lily swerved and maneuvered around the box weapons headed toward her, but there was only so much she could do without risking injury. She jabbed pressure points when she was close enough and fired when she wasn't, but she wasn't able to make much progress with such a disadvantage in experience and weaponry.

"Stop!" Everyone stopped and looked around to see the 'leader' holding up Issac. "I found this little one spying from behind the pillar there and thought you might know him."

Lily glared. "Release him."

The man grinned. "How about a trade. I was thinking you for him. I was just going to have you killed, but you seem to know about the time difference, so I changed my mind and decided I wanted to find out what else you may know."

"Drop him and crush the remote so that you can't blow up the area, then you have a deal," Lily negotiated. She wasn't very into self-sacrifice, but she wasn't going to let the kid die for her selfish desires either.

The man laughed lightly. "Deal." He released the kid.

Lily jerked her head to the side, indicating the child should run. She didn't lower her weapon until Issac was a safe distance away.

The man shrugged and crushed the remote as he watched his men tie up the woman. "I don't need to ruin the Vongola just yet. If you're someone like us, then you may have something more useful. I must say that it's quite the surprise that the Vongola have a time traveler on their side as well, but this will definitely benefit us."

Lily didn't get the chance to retort because she was knocked out from a blow to the back of the head.

* * *

"Vongola Primo! Vongola Primo!" Issac called out desperately as he ran up to the man.

The blond smiled and turned his attention to the child. "Issac is it? And are you enjoying this party?"

Issac shook his head desperately. "Danger! There's danger! They were going to do something, but I don't know what, so Lily fought them and I got in the way. Now they have her! They took her away! They're going to hurt her and everyone here!"

"Slow down," Giotto said sternly, becoming serious. "Explain what happened."

"Lady Lily and I were talking on the veranda when we were attacked, but Lily took the man down and went to investigate. We saw a bunch of men moving some weird boxes around and this man said something strange, but Lily seemed to understand because looked worried. She told me to find you and tell her, but I stayed behind. Then these men took out magic boxes, but Lily called them box weapons, and these strange fire covered weapons came out and they attacked her. But then the leader caught me and Lily gave herself up."

"G," Primo called out.

"I'm on it," the storm guardian replied instantly.

Giotto nodded and turned back to the boy, who was tearing up. "Is there anything else?"

"No…wait! Yes! Lily said something when she saw the big crates. She said that they weren't from this time…Is she going to be alright?"

Giotto smiled and ruffled the boy's hair. "We'll save her. Don't worry. You did a good job telling us everything. Now you should return to your parents and wait for us to come back, alright?"

The boy nodded and ran off.

Primo turned around to face his already prepared guardians. "We should hurry."

* * *

SLAP!

Lily ground her teeth together. She had been through way worse when she was still in that gang a number of years ago, so it would take a lot more than a few punches to make her talk. She glared at the men hatefully.

The leader smirked. "Wow, you're a tough cookie. But everyone has their breaking point-"

"I know human psychology you idiot," Lily snapped. But he was right. No matter how strong you were, there was a limit to how much torture one could take before the finally couldn't take anymore.

"Then this'll be more interesting." The man's smirk grew and he slowly pulled out a knife.

Lily's eyes widened a little. Knife…_Knife_…_**Knife!**_

Her mind went into overdrive and her vision went red.

* * *

"Primo!" The group turned around to see Nina heading toward them with an uncharacteristically serious expression. "You _must_ hurry. I wanted to help her, but if they take out a knife then a part of her past that's been slowly destroying her will happen again. And this time, it may just break her for good."

While they wanted to know more about what was going on, they took favor over quickening their pace. No one questioned Nina's choice to follow them, even letting her lead them toward the destination that Alaude had found out only a few moments ago thanks to his extensive network.

But when they arrived at the port warehouse that the offending famiglia had taken over, they were met with the sight of a massacre, and Lily was standing in the middle of it.

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**This chapter was going to be longer, but I felt like this sort of ending would be more exciting. But we have reached the first conflict! Hoped you liked it!**

**Reviews are lovely!**


	13. Ch 13 Fifty Shades of Gray

**Alright, for those of you who don't know since you haven't read my other story Sentiment is a Sin or my profile, I got into a car incident (as there are no accidents in these sorts of things) a little while ago. While I came out pretty intact, my right wrist was broken, and I am right handed so it's extremely difficult for me to type right now. Sometimes a friend helps a little, but as it is I have to do it on my own. I also have a job to slow me down. **

**I apologize for the extra wait, but I hope you can understand.**

**I would like to say a BIG THANKS to: Autore Raita, xxtoushirou, Guest 1, YuujouKami, Alexandria Voulturi, drago123, anna the viking XD, Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja, Riolutae, TheKawaiiStar21, and RagingTmpestaCx! Your wonderful reviews are what kept me going when I really felt like chucking my computer at the wall from frustration. I'm sorry, but I won't be replying to your reviews until my hand gets better, I hope this doesn't offend you!**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

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Chapter 13 Fifty Shades of Gray

It was pure carnage.

Blood painted everywhere, bodies strewn over the ground and rafters at odd angles. Some were only lumps of indistinguishable pieces of flesh, cut to bits.

But the sight that probably scared them the most, was the complete emptiness within Lily's eyes. None of the first generation had thought that, that girl was capable of such atrocious acts. Sure, she had said that she had been a street fighter, but this…this was purely murder.

"This isn't good," Nina muttered with an uncharacteristic frown.

"No kidding," G tried to joke with a hollow tone.

Nina shook her head furiously. "This isn't necessarily Lily's fault."

"What do you mean?" Giotto questioned, tearing his eyes away from the gruesome scene before him.

"Her life was put in danger so she went into self-defense mode and responded accordingly." Nina nodded toward her charge. "You see that cut on her neck? It's shallow, but just enough to draw blood. My guess is that they were going to torture her for information with something sharp, like a knife, but when they cut her and she saw her blood…well…she lost it-"

"Not finished yet?" Her voice was quiet, but it was undoubtedly her. Lily raised her head, but her eyes were still vacant. "Dangerous. You're dangerous."

"Back away!" Nina shouted. Asari moved away just in time to avoid a fatal blow to his abdomen. "She's still on automatic. Anyone who she spots while she's still like this she _will_ kill."

"Then we should fight back." Alaude dove forward, handcuffs out.

"No!" The wish granter shouted, just in time to force the man to dodge a surge of flames. "She'll use everything she has, even if it kills her."

"I thought the point was to preserve her life," G called out.

Nina shook her head. "When she becomes like this, her goals become a whole lot simpler. This building is the originator of the first danger presented to her, so her goal is to make it out of the building alive. Until then, she'll call upon her very life energy to take out all of us. She's literally fighting with her dying will. She's willing to kill herself to make it out of here alive."

"You do realize that, that makes no sense!" G called out, dodging a wave of knives conjured from mist flames.

Suddenly, Lily stopped and looked down at her hands. "Not good enough? They won't die. Need more."

Mist flames gathered then burst out all around the girl, surrounding her entire being with the indigo flame. She winced a little, but made no other indication that she was possibly in pain that she should have been. She dove back into the fight, but she was exponentially faster and stronger now.

"How do we knock her out of this state?" Giotto asked hurriedly, backing away from the fight for a moment.

Nina shook her head. "You can't bring her back while you're still in the building. She'll surely shatter if she sees what she's done to all these people, be it bad guys or not. Look, she's crying. A part of her recognizes that she doesn't really want to do this. She's just scared. But it's also that fear that's making her like this."

"So what do we do?" Giotto asked urgently.

"I-I-I don't know. I was trying to get her to open up to all of you before this happened so that we'd never have to encounter this situation," Nina said desperately. "I chose her for this because her heart was the most torn up when a selection process was initiated. I thought all of you would be able to fix her before she broke completely!"

"This isn't good," the sky guardian muttered. He turned back to survey the battle more closely. He would admit that when Lily was fighting with everything she had, she was a force to be reckoned with. Neither he nor his guardians would have ever suspected that she had this much potential strength. He thought quickly, but carefully about everything the other woman had told him just now. "She's scared, huh."

A sky flame adorned his brow and hands, and in a flash his was behind the girl. He wrapped an arm over her own and placed his other hand over her eyes, ignoring the flames that were trying to burn him. Lily struggled violently, but she didn't have enough physical strength to surpass the man holding her arms down. She cried out in frustration, desperately trying to find a way out and evade the death that would surely take her the way she was now.

"You're safe," Giotto muttered, his words calm and only slightly strained from the effort of holding the girl. "There is no danger. We won't let you get hurt again. You are _safe_ Lily."

"Not safe. Danger. There is danger." Lily continued to struggle, untrusting of the man who held her captive.

"You are with friends now," Giotto persisted evenly. "We aren't going to bring you any harm. We are trying to protect you."

"People don't protect, they kill and hurt everything in their paths."

Lily's thrashing lessened the smallest amount, but it was enough for Giotto to realize that he was on the right path. "Not everyone is like that. You aren't like that."

"You're wrong. I'm just like the rest of them. I'm stained. I'm bad. I'm like him." Her thrashing increased to an even higher level.

Primo was grimacing now. "I can prove that we won't hurt you. I'll lead you to the door and let you do as you please. We won't follow you if that's what you wish."

"Leave? Must leave. This place bad. Escape. Run away." Her words were so simple. Her present self was not as deep as when she was truly in the right state of mind, and now that she was reminded of her original objective, she was even more frantic to leave.

The blond slowly dragged the girl over to the door, keeping his hand over her eyes all the while so that the horrible image wouldn't ingrain itself in greater detail in her mind. When he reached the exit, Primo spun the girl around and released her.

Lily took in the scene carefully before sighing in relief, her flame flickering out, and fading back into a semi-conscious state. She took a shaky step forward, but was stopped by a coughing fit. The raven haired girl doubled over, one hand clutching her stomach and the other over her mouth. And then she collapsed.

Asari was close enough to catch the girl and lower her carefully to the ground. He, like everyone else, was alarmed to see the blood dripping down her chin and covering her hand. Knuckles was by her side in an instant and feeding the girl's shivering form large doses of his sun flames.

"What was that?" G demanded.

Nina smiled sadly. "She's a lost little girl, that's what. Do not bother asking me anything else. No matter what, Lily must be the one to tell you about her past. I may have pushed her farther than I had hoped, but I will not allow anything to break her. Her true wish has begun and I won't interfere with that."

* * *

Lily sat up with a start. She had broken out in a cold sweat and was panting hard. Her eyes darted around the room as she tried to distinguish where she was. The last thing she remembered was the man cutting her deep enough to draw blood, but then everything went blank.

Her vision cleared enough where she was finally able to recognize the room. Lily sighed in relief and pressed a hand to her head. Thank god. She was safe.

She gasped and stood up, running to the door and down the hall. What had happened to the bombs?

Lily ran as quickly as she could, which wasn't very fast, back to the main hall and out to the terrace. "Stop!" Lily slowed to a stop and doubled over panting. "Don't-…Don't move those or you'll blow up everything."

"Lily-san, you should return to your bed," Asari said gently.

But Lily just waved the man away. "None of you know what that is or how to disable it right? Well, I do." Lily allowed the Japanese man to help support and lead her to the crate that the other family had left behind. She analyzed the wires sticking out carefully. "It's like I thought. They used a set of pipe and cluster bombs. If any of you had touched the wrong soft point or tore out the wrong wire, then you'd all be sky high right about now."

"What on earth are you talking about?" G asked incredulously.

"These crates were filled with highly advanced explosives," Lily explained in a strained tone. Her lack of energy was making her patience a little short. "These are highly advanced for this time. I have no idea how they found out how to make them or where they could have gotten the materials, but they shouldn't be here."

"And how do you know about them?" Giotto asked calmly.

"I like to work with my hands when I'm frustrated and may or may not have gotten a number of people to teach me how to build them. I never actually put in the gunpowder or other stuff that would make it seriously explode in there for real, but it was a good de-stressor to imagine all my annoying teachers blowing up in their homes." Lily reached forward and pulled out a few wires in one bomb, successfully deactivating it. "It's actually kind of funny how many dangerous and other lethal things you can learn in college if you know the right people. And that's not including my own classes."

"You are one sad sadistic little girl." The group looked around to see Nina tutting and shaking her head.

"Try having a teacher, who has _control over your grades_ may I remind you, hate your guts and then tell me how you would deal with it?" Lily retorted. She finished deactivating the rest of the bombs and leaned against the wall, sliding down so that she didn't have to fight to remain standing anymore. "Why am I so tired? What exactly happened yesterday? The last thing I remember is being tied to a chair and then it all goes blank."

The shared look between the first generation members present did not go unseen by the young woman.

"What?" The raven haired woman demanded weakly, pushing herself to her feet again. She clenched her hands into white knuckled fists and bit her lip. "Did I…do something horrible again?"

"What? No!" G responded quickly.

Lily smiled sadly. "You think I don't know? I saw this coming several months ago. I… I had a dream the night before I went back to the town after the first time I arrived here. I saw a ring of bodies and blood and I…" Lily bit her lip again to cut herself off before taking a deep breath and trying again. "I was in the middle of it all…How many?"

"Don't do that to yourself," Giotto said softly.

A look of distress paces Lily's face before she schooled her emotions into a blank mask once more. "I need to know."

"What difference will it make?" The blond asked. "Other than to torture yourself with, I see no point to knowing the details."

"I need to know my own sins. They may have been horrible people, but that does not excuse their deaths by my hands."

"It's killed or be killed and you chose to live," Alaude said, coming up from behind. "Stop your useless whining and move on. There are other tasks to be completed."

Lily bit her lip and frowned. "I have to know…" She muttered. "I have too…I don't want to be like _him_, so I have to know…"

"The fact that you regret your actions is proof enough that you aren't like that man," Nina said gently.

Asari nodded in agreement and placed a gentle hand on the shoulder of the nonresponsive girl. "When faced with a life threatening decision, you made the choice to live. There is nothing wrong with that."

"What are all of you doing!" Everyone but Lily looked around to see Elena racing toward them. "She just woke up and you're letting her sit out in the cold? Daemon, I thought you knew better than that!"

"Why just me?" The illusionist demanded.

"Because she's like our sister!" Elena continued to scold. She knelt down in front of the girl and took her hands in her own with a soft smile. "You just went through something really tough, so why don't we have a girl's day out? I've been dying to spend time alone with my new little sister anyways. We can go to my hometown for a couple weeks and relax."

Lily looked up in surprise. "You're not…You're not disgusted? You don't hate me?"

Elena's smile widened. "Why would any of us hate you dear? We've all done things we aren't proud of, but we didn't do it without cause or reason. And more than that, we're family."

Lily just stared at the group, her eyes watering a little, but not enough to cry. Then, slowly, she smiled and laughed a little. "You're all so foolish, but…thank you."

Elena smiled and pulled the girl into a hug, which Lily actually accepted.

"Aaaw~" Nina sniffed. She clasped her hands together and openly cried at the scene before her. "This-This is so touching…Okay! Let's go shopping to celebrate!"

Lily deadpanned. "Leave it to a complete moron to ruin the moment."

Asari laughed. "But at least your back to normal now."

"If, by normal, you mean back into my sardonically cynical mindset, then sure," Lily shrugged.

* * *

Later during dinner…

Lily slammed her hands down on the table and glared at the illusionist. "Okay, that's it. My tolerance level has been breached."

The group glanced between the mist guardian and the raven haired hair curiously, wondering what Daemon had done this time to piss her off.

"This has been bugging the ever loving daylights out of me since the first time I saw you, but _why_ is your hair styled after a freaking watermelon?"

…

"Pfft." Six of the seven men broke out into fits of laughter. G and Lampo were outright laughing in front of the illusionist, while holding their stomachs from the force. Giotto, Asari, and Knuckles were trying their best to smother their laughter with coughing, drinking, or their fists, and failing horribly. Even Alaude (who actually stuck around for dinner, which was probably only the fourth time since Lily arrived) was chuckling, though he covered his mouth with his hand. Elena chuckled without trying to hide her amusement.

Daemon's eye twitched.

"Now that you mention it, it really does look like a melon!" G wheezed.

"You're a melon head!" Lampo sniggered, he was crying from laughing so hard by now.

"What? You can't tell me that you hadn't noticed!" Lily said incredulously. She couldn't really see why it was so funny. She thought it was utterly ridiculous and had always wanted to ask as to why, of all the hairdos in the world, why it had that shape (she would ask Mukuro too if the situation was reversed).

"I assure you, that my hair isn't styled after such a ridiculous notion," Daemon growled.

"But look! You even have the squigglies leading to the top where there would be a bunch of leaves and stem!" Lily pointed out. "And you're obviously purposely styling it that way or you would let the hair at the top grow out."

"If that is all you have to say, then I shall bid you all a goodnight," Daemon said stiffly.

"Wait! You still haven't answered my question!" Lily called out with a hand raised as if to stop the man.

The illusionist stormed out of the room without looking at anyone or answering the raven haired girl.

* * *

Extra- How Lily gained Spanish under her belt as well

"Hey Nina," Lily called out.

The woman turned around with her usual smile. "Yes, honey bunch?"

"I also want to be able to speak Spanish."

"Hmm~ Why?"

"Well, a month before I met you, I saw a movie where Penelope Cruz kept going off in Spanish whenever she was yelling at this one guy, and I've always wanted to do that as well. Plus it would be nice to have all three of the 'Romantic' languages under my belt."

"Well~…I guess it'll be okay." She snapped her fingers and smiled. "There you go, hun!"

Lily went off, ranting in Spanish. If anyone else heard her it would sound like she was pissed. The girl smiled sadistically. Now she could yell at Giotto and most of the others, and they would only be able to stare and hope she wasn't _too_ mad at them for something they weren't quite sure of. This would be an easy way to get them to give her more treats in an attempt to stay her nonexistent temper.

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**I added a little extra as an apology for my lateness. It would have been longer, but my hand is hurting. But I hoped you liked this chapter!**

**Reviews are lovely!**


	14. Ch 14 Time Marches On

**For those of you who actually care for the reason my updates are going to take more time, please go to my profile to check out the whole story. Most people don't care or read author's notes, so I'm not going to copy/paste it here. For those of you who do read, I hope you can understand and not be too angry.**

**To Hisawa Kana, xxtoushirou, Alexandria Volturi, YuujouKami, Ri-chan, RagingTempestaCx, anna the viking XD, ShinigamiinPeru, The Mouse Maestro, Riolutae, TheKawaiiStar21, and H; THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO REVIEW! It means a great deal to me and encourages me through everything that's happened to continue working on this story! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!**

**Please enjoy this chapter!**

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Chapter 14 Time Marches On

"Are you okay Lily?" Elena asked in concern as they traversed in their carriage across the new town, sweat dropping a little at the state of the girl lying on the other bench across from her.

"Too…damn…hoooooot~," Lily moaned. Despite being born in the summer, Lily was most definitely a winter person. No matter how much she tried, she and heat did not go together nicely. "Not to mention that those two idiots dumped all their paperwork on me to finish while I'm away." She glared hatefully at the trunk full of paperwork that was just barely visible through the side window.

Elena laughed lightly. "You've been helping them out so much that I don't think they could handle all that work on their own anymore."

Lily sniffed indignantly. "Well they should, I haven't been here all _that_ long. Besides, Alaude even made me come all the way to his town residence so that he didn't have to keep 'crowding' with the Vongola so often."

"You know, it's actually thanks to you that Alaude has been around the mansion as often as he has. Usually he's not around more than maybe three times a year. But, I think he's been around the mansion at least a couple days every month since you arrived," Elena mused.

Lily grimaced. "I'd prefer if he stuck to his old schedule. Less work and bruises for me."

Elena responded with another light laugh.

Lily sighed and rolled over into a sitting position. "So what's your family like?"

The blond woman hummed with a small smile. "Let's see…I suppose they're your average noble family. My parents are busy more often than not. I didn't really ask you to accompany me to see them. It was actually so that you could meet my grandparents and a few others."

Lily nodded and turned to look out the window. She had to admit that the architecture of old Italy was beautiful. She had always planned to visit the country and travel around as many cities as possible, but the privilege to see everything like it was brand new and without any restoration was absolutely amazing. She was glad that she at least got the chance to see at least this much.

The carriage pulled up to a large mansion a little while later, signaling to Lily that she should start casting the illusionary dress Elena had picked out before they left around herself. Elena smiled softly and fixed up the girl's hair a little before the two stepped out and looked up at the house.

"Well…It's big…" Lily said lamely. She wasn't really sure what else she was supposed to say.

Elena laughed lightly and led the way to the door and through the house. She nodded toward the servants who would bow politely and welcome her back, but moved through at an even pace otherwise. Lily folded her arms together and glided through the halls confidently, as Elena had instructed earlier, maneuvering around the building with apparent ease and ignoring the stares she received.

Lily huffed a little. "I hate introductions. Couldn't we just look around the town and then come back later."

Elena smiled apologetically. "It would be rude to not greet my parents first. Let's get this over with quickly so that I can show you around properly before it gets too late."

Lily sighed. "Alright, lead the way."

The two didn't stop until they were in front of two wooden ornate doors. The older woman reached out, knocked softly, but firmly, and waited for permission to enter. The greetings were actually very short and extremely formal. Lily could tell that their family wasn't very close, though they did have a small bond. However, the two girls weren't in Elena's father's office for more than ten minutes before they were on their way again. The younger of the two made sure that she didn't comment on the process anymore after that and the two continued into town.

It was actually quite enjoyable for Lily. Despite her low tolerance for window-shopping, Elena was actually able to keep Lily entertained and amused the whole way through. Elena received a surprise when they went to a popular café for lunch and saw how much the younger woman was able to consume. The blond woman was even nearly able to convince (nag) Lily into buying an actual dress. They ended up on settling with buying materials to make one, but it was the thought that counted. Although, Lily did end up promising that she would wear a real dress for everyone one of those days…maybe… (Not really).

It also turned out that the grandparents that Elena had wanted Lily to meet were an old couple that lived in a small cottage situated near Elena's mansion. They were an adorable old duo, who cracked jokes and witty replies to everything the other would say. Lily was reminded of her own grandparents from long ago as well as one of her childhood goals. This couple had the relationship that Lily dreamed of having when she was old. She had always wanted to be the cool crazy old grandma that kids would talk about and wouldn't mind having around.

The raven haired girl managed to open herself up a little to her blond companion, telling her a little about her latest adopted family as well as some of the events that occurred with them. In turn, Elena told her about her own family. She also told the younger girl how she met Daemon and became associated with the Vongola. The raven was actually able to learn quite a lot about the Vongola men, more so Daemon than the others, but she was still able to pick up a few new things (mostly for blackmail purposes) that she made herself repeat until she was sure that she would always remember it.

On the way back to the mansion, Lily started to notice that something was watching them. However, when she informed Elena, the two decided to wait until they were approached before taking action.

"Wait!" Lily hissed, holding out a hand to stop the other woman and looking around. Something felt off. There was movement just barely visible to the girl's peripheral vision, and Lily immediately pulled her companion out of the way of gunfire. '_Seriously? We _just_ got here and we don't even get a _little_ down time? Why is it that everything in a freaking anime has to happen all in one day? I mean, really now!_'

Lily pulled out her own rifle, which was literally thrown at her by G just as they were leaving earlier the day before, and started firing. She clipped two on the shoulder, causing them to drop their weapons, and managed to shoot another three in the leg. There was a hiss and a storm snake appeared.

"Schmitt!" Lily semi-cursed, dodging the attempt to bite her and fired rounds with cloud flames.

The snake gave something akin to a blood curdling scream and back away, its tongue flicking out as it tried to find a weak spot to attack the girl. Lily could almost swear that it smirked when a horde of thunder wasps came out.

"Oh come _on_!" Lily growled. She reloaded and aimed for the box weapons' masters. "Chew on this, you pus-filled boils!"

She dodged some more and fired as she dove for a hiding spot near her blond companion, managing to break one of the footholds of a statue in such a way that it fell over several men.

"Did you actually aim for that?" Elena asked, impressed.

"You know, actually, I did," Lily replied with the same amazed filled shock. "Duck!"

The two ducked down behind the wall again to avoid another barrage of attacks. However, both froze when something cold poked their backs with a threatening click.

"You know, I'm getting _real_ tired of this," Lily grumbled, standing up slowly with her hands raised.

The man smirked. "Well then, let's make this real simple."

Lily's nose twitched a little. She hated it when people used poor grammar.

The man either ignored the reaction or was just too oblivious to see it, but continued unfazed. "All you have to do is tell us everything you know of this time. Informants told us that you came from the future."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "The future? How ridiculous. Does it look like I'm capable doing something like that? Last, I checked, time travel was still impossible. Heck, the idea wasn't even probable."

First course of action in this sort of situation was lie and bluff her way out of it. Hopefully that would be able to either worm their way out of trouble or at least buy them enough time to get away and send for help.

The man's expression soured. "Don't try to bluff your way out of this you broad."

Alright. So lying wasn't going to work. Then how about…

Mist that had been gathering around the area gradually suddenly surged and covered everything in a shroud of a misty white. The men immediately started firing rounds, but didn't seem to be able to hit anyone. One by one, they were taken out with a few well-placed jabs, falling with a grunt until there was only the one man who had snuck up behind Lily and Elena left. The raven haired girl crept up behind the man and struck, but he disappeared in a cloud of indigo mist.

"What the-!" The younger woman hissed, spinning around to look for the man. She froze when something long, cold, and sharp pressed against her neck.

"Not bad. Not bad at all my dear, but you still have much to work on," someone whispered into her ear. "I'm pleasantly surprised to see that even weapons of another time frame don't faze you at all, but you were unable to see that all but the people were illusions."

Lily narrowed her eyes and tried to distinguish any features of the shadow out of the corner of her eye. "Are you saying that all of this was just a test?"

The person chuckled. "Of course. I only select the best after all and as Daemon Spade is already taking up another role, I had to find another mist flame user. Fortuitously for me, you popped up into this time and dimension. Quite the lucky catch, wouldn't you say?"

"What are you going on about?" Lily growled.

"Flames of high purity are such a rare breed. But they are absolutely necessary for the jobs I give out. However, while you have the potential, you still have a long way to go. You should work on that anchor of a past, otherwise you'll never be able to grow stronger."

Even though she couldn't see the man, Lily had the distinct feeling that he was smirking. She ground her teeth in anger and irritation. "Too bad then. I only want to grow strong enough to finish up the requirements that are keeping me here so that I can head back to my own time and world."

"Oh? And what of the others? You can't deny that you feel at least the slightest bit attached to their little group. Would you really leave them behind so easily and let them fall to darkness?" The man asked in a mockingly concerned fashion.

"That would have happened with or without me," The raven hissed.

"But it could be much worse. I can make sure of that, it would be quite easy," the man taunted.

Lily glared at the shadow. "What do you want?"

The man smiled wolfishly and whispered what he desired of the girl. The raven's eyes widened in shock and she paled with dread.

"Lily!"

A flash of green flew towards the shadow-covered man, who dodged effortlessly.

The man chuckled again. "I look forward to watching your progress, piccolo fiore." [Little flower] With that he disappeared.

"Are you alright, Lily?" Elena asked in concern, hurrying over to the shock-induced girl.

"Huh? Oh, yes, I'm just…" The younger woman blinked and looked around. "Wait a sec… Holy shmuck! Did you just use lightning flames?"

The blond smiled gently. "No one ever said I couldn't fight back. I'm not as defenseless as I seem, Daemon made sure of that."

"That's it. My brain has officially stopped functioning." Lily crossed and uncrossed her arms like a baseball umpire signaled that a player was safe, shaking her head vigorously. "All of these things need to happen one day at a time. My poor overused brain is being fried from all of this new information, and threats, and dangers, and abilities, and surprises, and everything else! The circuits in my head can handle all this stress! And why the heck am I getting more involved in all of this? I'm as threatening as a blade of grass on crack! All I'm capable of is hiding! I'm just an aberration! The most I could possible do is a bit of finagling to make things run the way I want them too. I'm a just a plain Jane, a normal carbon based life form, a nobody! Compared to everyone else, my parameters are enough to set even Einstein back to the dark ages!"

Elena merely smiled with her hands folded together as she watched the younger girl rant all of her issues out of her system, not bothering to try to follow along when the raven delved into words that are more difficult to distinguish and make sense of. She only moved once the younger woman calmed down with a huff. "Why don't we go inside now? I'm not sure what just happened, but I'm sure that we could both use a nice bath and some time to unwind. It's been a long day after all."

Lily sighed. "Yeah, I suppose."

Elena laughed lightly. "Come, we should enjoy ourselves while the sun is still warm. When we return to the others, fall will start taking its course toward the colder season."

Lily grimaced. "Fall, huh…I almost forgot. It seems another year has gone by."

The girl's eyes darkened without the others notice. It wasn't too long now, was it?

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**Two different cliff hangers...sorry..**

**But fret not! My friend decided to pity me and we are almost done with the next chapter!**

**Reviews are lovely~!**


	15. Ch 15 Shattering Souls & Weeping Hearts

**I said we were almost done. And we made it extra-long just for you guys! ;)**

**I want to thank Kildosad and TheKawaiiStar21 for reviewing chapter 14 already! This chapter is especially for loyal reviewers like you guys!**

**I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 15 Shattering Souls and Weeping Hearts

Thunder rolled through the dark clouds looming overhead, flashes of lighting off in the distance. It was the perfect ambience to accompany her mood right now.

Lily pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them loosely, staring at the storm brewing outside. '_It's already that time of the year again…how loathsome._'

Lighting flashed overhead, illuminating the gaunt look in the girl's eyes before plunging the world back into darkness.

* * *

"Hm? So Lily won't be joining us for breakfast again?" Asari asked curiously, his undertone laced with concern.

G shook his head.

"She does seem to be keeping to herself more often as of late," Knuckles commented.

Lampo opened an eye to observe the group. "What's got her so down in the slums?"

"That is none of your concern," Lily said almost coldly. She walked over to Primo and handed him a set of folders. "Those are all organized and rearranged. You should look over the batch, or at least the first ten documents as there are some things that you should be aware of."

The sky guardian nodded. "Thank you. Why don't you take a break now? You look like you could use some rest." He eyed the slightly darker skin under her eyes as well as the shakiness in her limbs.

"I'm fine as long as I have something to keep me busy. If you'll excuse me," Lily nodded to the group and turned to leave.

Abruptly, the door burst open and Nina came waltzing in. "Good morning~ little flower! Aren't you excited? You'll be starting your very last year as a teenager soon!"

Lily scowled. "Shut up. I don't want to hear about that topic ever again." The raven haired girl stormed out of the room before anything else could be said to her.

"What were you two talking about?" Giotto inquired of the remaining woman.

Nina smiled brightly. "Lily's birthday is coming up in a couple weeks! She'll be turning 19!"

Asari smiled. "Then we should throw her a party."

The sun guardian nodded in agreement. "Perhaps then she shall feel better."

"I don't know, Lily doesn't really like celebrations," Lampo disputed.

"Nufufu, I'm going to have to agree with the child on this one. That girl doesn't like such occasions," Daemon added.

"Maybe she's so upset right now because she feels like she's being forgotten on her one day of celebration, but is too humble to speak up," Knuckles argued.

"I doubt it," G snorted. "Did you see how she reacted when Nina brought the subject up?"

"What do you think Giotto?" Asari asked their leader figure.

The blond tapped his chin in thought. "How about we have a small party? It will be just for family, nothing too upscale."

The group nodded in agreement.

"Alright! Let's start planning!" Nina exclaimed.

* * *

Lily's eye twitched. "What the hell is this?"

"Buon Compleanno!" Everyone cheered. (Italian: Happy Birthday)

Lily turned on her heel and began walking out of the room, but she was pulled back and tossed into a chair.

"You're not running out when all your new friends did their very best to put something small together just for you, are you?" Nina asked, a light mocking undertone lacing her words.

Lily narrowed eyes dangerously, flashing a little. But then she shrugged and leaned back into her chair, crossing her arms. "Do what you want. Just do it quickly before my patience completely runs out."

The group smiled and started their little party. Lily didn't talk much, nor move from her chair for that matter, and she kept a blank face the entire duration. For the few words she did utter, it was mostly to Alaude (who they had managed to force into attending) and Elena, then G, and lastly Primo. She refused point blank to open any of the gifts they had gotten her, telling them that she didn't want them to have wasted money on her. Despite the birthday girl's attitude toward the whole occasion, the others still managed to enjoy themselves.

It was about halfway through the celebration that everything started to go downhill.

"Why don't you play us a few songs on your guitar!" Nina asked excitedly.

Lily glared.

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to hear some of your music," Asari agreed. "I'm usually the only one who plays an instrument, so it'd be nice to hear others."

The raven stared blankly for a while before sighing and taking the offered instrument from Nina. She strummed an obviously sad song without a flicker of emotion.

"Well…that was a…pretty song…" Giotto said somewhat awkwardly. "What was it called?"

"Lies." Lily yawned without a care, seeming unperturbed by her choice of tune.

"How about another tune?" Elena asked.

The raven shrugged and played another sad song. "Before you ask, that title translates to day by day."

"Ah…Why don't you try playing a more upbeat song?" The sky guardian requested.

Lily huffed but complied. This time the song felt deceivingly happy, with a longing undertone. She dove into another song right after that one, but this one seemed to be begging them of something. "First one was Blue and the second is called Monster."

"No, no, no!" Nina whined with her cheeks puffed up. "Something more upbeat!"

Lily's eyes narrowed and started playing another song, this one definitely had a lighter sort of tune than the others.

"And what was that one called?" Knuckles inquired with a slight smile.

"Angry and Dead Again," the raven growled.

The group sweat dropped. They were almost visibly relieved to see their servants entering with dinner.

Giotto smiled. "Why don't we pick this up after our meal?"

Lily rolled her eyes at the fact that she had to endure more, but took her place obediently so that she wasn't tossed around by Nina or one of the others.

"We should all take a moment to thank the lord for this bounty," Knuckles said cheerfully once all the food had been set out and the servants had retreated.

Lily stiffened. Her heart rate increased dramatically, but it felt like her blood had turned to ice. She clenched her hands to prevent them from shaking, but waited until Knuckles had finished his prayer before excusing herself and leaving the room as normally as possible. She walked quickly past the stables and through the trees until she was at her favorite little clearing again. Finally, her anger gave out and she punched the ground. She left her hand resting against the dirt as she panted as if she had run a marathon and back.

The girl didn't bother to look up, even when it started to rain. She smiled bitterly. '_How cliché. It always seem to rain on the characters when something really dramatic happens…Then again, rain is the best way to hide tears._'

Charlie stumbled out of the bushes. When he spotted Lily, he brightened up and ran over. The girl started a little, but relaxed when she saw who it was and smiled a little, though it was more of a twitch of her lips. The baby bear calmed her down considerably and she was glad for his arrival. It made bearing her pain a little less. She didn't look up when she heard footsteps approaching, just nudging the little bear to head back to his mother before pulling out her guitar and strumming a tune. It was sad, but sometimes she just needed to play a song that matched her mood, otherwise her happy ones would be tainted as well.

"Are you alright, Lily?" It was Giotto who asked first.

Lily could see five of the first generation guardian standing at the bottom of the hill from her peripheral vision, but she knew that Alaude and Daemon were close by as well. She didn't bother replying, trying to focus all of her attention on the song.

"Does it have something to do with the prayer to god Knuckles gave earlier?" The sky guardian asked knowingly.

Lily's song came to a stop with a screech of a chord. "What _God_?" She asked with distaste evident in the name. However, she still didn't look around.

"Surely, you must believe in the Lord," Knuckles spoke up.

Lily broke out into hysterical and insane sounding laughter, slowly at first, then picking up gusto. "I don't believe in any such nonsense. You can believe in what you want, but keep me out of it." She resumed her song where she left off, louder this time in the attempt to drown out any more attempts of the others speaking to her, but to no avail.

"The Lord has given us everything in this world and he is your creator," Knuckles told the girl.

The girl's hand clenched, making her play strum all the strings without harmony. "God has given nothing. He does not exist. The world came together on its own. There is no almighty being that made it so."

Knuckled frowned at this. "God is our creator and savior. He is all that is good in this world."

"What God?" Lily shouted, finally turning around to face the men. "What sort of God would allow so many to suffer if he really cared that much? What God would allow mere children to starve and killers to hunt the streets? Science proves how this world came together and there is nothing to show that some higher being was the reason for it!"

"That is not true," the priest said calmly. "While there is suffering, it is meant to be a test for each soul. Suffering is also mankind's' way of punishment for the sins of Adam and Eve."

"If that's the case, then this god you speak of is nothing but a grudge bearing beast! We are not Adam, nor Eve. And it should not matter that we came of their blood! To pass down such unrighteous curses, just shows that this world has nothing to do with him!" Lily was furious. It was like all her anger that built up since that fateful day was roaring out all at once.

"There may be great pain, but there is also a great amount of good," Knuckles argued.

"I ask again. What god would create humans that kill?" Lily asked angrily. "Why create sociopaths, those humans born without the remorse section of their brain? They never had a fair chance. What about the people who suffer from a psychotic break? They kill plenty, but it is not entirely their fault. And yet, one of the ten commandment is 'thou shalt not kill', but since they have, will they be punished too? And what about the children who die from their parents' abuse? How is that fair for them? And what about diseases that can't be cured? Why place that on earth if he really cared? If your so called god really loved us equally, then why is it that even those who believe and do no evil get so painfully tortured as well? My aunt was raped and ended up having a kid. But unlike most victims, she loved the child and never blamed my cousin for her assault. But then, when the child was only six, my aunt got into a horrible accident. Where was god, when that child needed his mother?"

"Why is it that you hold such great hatred in your heart?" Giotto asked. He stared at the girl calmly, fully aware that there were tears mixed in with the rain running down her face.

Lily stiffened and a dark shadow covered her eyes. "…Michael E. Duncan," the girl muttered.

"What?" G asked.

The girl looked up. Her eyes were full of pain and complete loathing for the name she uttered. "Michael E. Duncan. When I was ten years old, that man invaded my home and assaulted my parents, using my brother's most prized trophy as his weapon. I prayed to god and asked him to protect my mom and dad. A few hours later they were dead, bludgeoned death. Their blood splattered everywhere, and that included on my brother and myself, and the rest pooled around them. You'd never realize that the human body could hold so much until you saw something like this. He had also tortured them by slicing their abdomen, just below their stomachs, and allowing their guts to hang out. Did you know, a human can live up to three hours like that? A slow and tortuous death... This all happened right in front of me and my brother…

He then kidnapped the two of us and dragged us with him for several weeks. Then he held up his gun and pointed it at me, but my brother stood in front to protect me. Once more, I prayed to god, this time asking him to protect my brother. But again, my family was killed right before my eyes. Joey was shot three times, but died of a combination of blood loss and shock. I could only watch as his blood pooled around him as he desperately tried to tell me to escape. He lived another 12 unbearable minutes before he finally died. Duncan held me captive for another week before holding the gun up to me again. And do you know what he said?...He said that he would let me live because now that I had lost everything, then it was more fun for him to watch me deteriorate. He said that I would be his best creation, promising that I would become just like him. He said that, that was the reason he allowed me to continue living my pathetic shell of a life… So tell me…what god?"

"What happened to that man?" Asari finally asked softly.

"He went to jail and died peacefully in his sleep before he could be prosecuted," Lily spat angrily. "He didn't even have to face a painful death from another inmate. He didn't even get the chance to suffer for his atrocious acts…" Lily's anger dissipated, leaving only agonizing pain. She pressed her palms against her eyes and crouched down. "I will suffer my whole life, because the only way I can remember my family is how they looked when that evil man had finished them off. I can't even enjoy pictures of my past because their images will transform into the gruesome mess he turned them into... They were good people and helped as many as they could through the kindness of their hearts, but they had to go through a slow and excruciating death… They were good people…"

Lily sniffed and looked up, her eyes dull and her face expressionless. "As it turns out, Michael was neither a sociopath, nor did he suffer a psychotic break. He was just a selfish man looking for a way to get his favorite high. He killed 23 others before he made it to my family. I was the only victim who survived…You'd think I'd find a nice family to take me in right after that. But I went through several different families in the foster care system. In the beginning, I tried to smile for them. I did everything they asked me to, but they always put me back into the system.

About five years after that I landed with a woman named Amy. She took in several foster kids because the government gave her money, so there were around seven of us all together. But that place was horrible. She barely fed us and would punish us for the smallest of things by sticking our heads into dirty sink water until we almost passed out. But she never left any visible marks, so we couldn't prove that she was abusing us. I took up the role of protecting everyone, especially those younger than me. Then, one day, she got mad and it didn't help that she had been drinking. One of the younger kids, Jeremy who was only six at the time, he accidentally knocked over a cup and it broke. Amy got really angry and started toward him with a kitchen knife, cutting his arm a little. I jumped in and fought her for the weapon. I remember how she shouted at me that she'd kill all of the other kids right before my eyes and then finish me off as well.

At that time I had managed to grab hold of the stupid thing and in a sudden rush to protect the others, I stabbed her in the chest. I felt no anger, just the need to protect the others. But when I turned around to check on Jeremy, he…he backed away in fear…He was scared of me…So I pulled out the knife, called the police, and told them what had taken place. One of the other kids took care of Jeremy's wound instead…I was ruled not guilty in court since it was for self-defense, then right after I was put right back into the foster care system…I always made a point to check on the other kids who were in that home with me. I wrote them letters all the time, asking how they were doing even if I never got a reply. About a year after later, two of them committed suicide and little Jeremy was killed in a transportation accident on his way to a new family who actually seemed to want to take good care of him. They seemed like good people. They even cried a little during the funeral.

A short while after I got out of that home though, I became tired of all the lies and started to get into a lot of street fights, using them as a way to work off all of my anger. I was classified anti-social by my peers which furthered my distrust of everyone. I was actually in a gang for a while. I only quite after one particular fight, that just pushed me too far. We got into a turf war and one of the other gang members brought a knife. It wasn't uncommon, but in this fight she managed to stab me. By this time I already had a high pain tolerance, so even though it hurt I could still keep fighting. But, when I saw my blood…I don't know…I just lost it…I don't even completely remember what happened. One second I was staring at by hand and the next, the other gang was on the floor, badly beaten. My other members told me I went ballistic and even turned on them when they tried to calm me down…In my rampage, I killed two of the other gang's members. That same day, I found out that I had been stabbed in such a way that I would never be able to bear children… I had just turned sixteen and I not only let myself fall into a monster, but I lost any chance that if I recovered, I might have had a family of my own…After that I quite my group, who actually let me go due to what they had seen, and tried to start anew. It was around then that I met Amy and Dougless.

I was working a part time job so that I could earn enough money to live on my own when I turned 18, which was the legal age where I lived… You know, I considered becoming a cop or and agent or something, so that I could chase after guys like Duncan and put them away where they can't harm anyone. But I botched the idea almost immediately because I don't want to meet any more people like that. I've seen and done evil. I didn't need to be near it anymore. Therefore, I chased after the idea of helping others by being a doctor and started taking a few basic courses. However, after a few courses, I figured out that I couldn't be a doctor after all because the sight of blood just made me sick to my stomach. So, I turned to the dream of traveling the world and changed classes. But between classes, after school clubs and sports, and work, I ended up running myself into the ground and I had to be hospitalized. Amy was my doctor. She had actually been a passing nurse when I was stabbed from that street fight and recognized me. After talking with me for a while, she decided to take me in."

A decades worth of secrets poured out all at once, stripping her of all her mental barriers and walls, leaving her completely bare to the world. And through all of it, Lily could only find that she felt hollow. There was no will to do anything, let alone live. She looked up at the dark sky and continued to cry all the tears that she had suppressed and that were finally making their way out.

"I hate putting my faith in anything I can't see or research before placing my trust in them. You never truly know what emptiness is like until you've had absolutely everything stripped away from you…I tried to blame my mother, father, and big brother for leaving me alone and for breaking their promise to protect me. But the guilt was too much and only created more nightmares…And now I don't even trust in myself to ever bring myself into any sort of relationship. How can I maintain even a slight friendship, when I'm more likely to leave before they can ever become close enough to hurt me? David's a great example. Even when I was in a gang, he tried to befriend me and take care of me. But all her got was several bruises and cuts. He was such an idiot, even gave me Little D for no reason." Lily chuckled bitterly, placing a hand over the same eye that a drop of her precious brother's blood had landed. "It's so pathetic. In the end…Duncan won. I was tainted too. I'm just as much of a monster as he was and the only reason I haven't killed myself is because I'm too afraid of death. I hate myself so much, but I'm too much of a coward to even end myself or allow anything else to end me. I hate it. I hate everything." She covered her eyes and pulled into herself. "And to top it all off, everything had to happen on my birthday. September 15th was both the beginning and end of my life. The anniversary of the day that everything went wrong, when my parents died and my brothers last week of life. I hate this month and everything it represents."

Too much. It was just too much. Too much pain. Too much misery. Too much loathing. Too much hate. It made her tired of everything. Tired of hiding; tired of hating; tired of always fighting, whether it be another person or herself; and most of all, tired of being tired.

A hand on her head and shoulder, startled the girl enough to look up. Both Giotto and Alaude were next to her, the former crouching down so that they were on the same plane. The others were closer as well, but allowed enough distance so that they weren't crowding the young woman.

The blond smiled sadly. "I understand what Nina meant now. Your heart weeps with more pain than I've ever seen a single person bear. It's no wonder that you distrust people and are so wary of everything around you. But you aren't the monster you make yourself out to be. A monster wouldn't care about the wellbeing of others, nor would they take the time to make sure they lived a full life. Yes, you have faults, but so does everyone else. Even though we disliked the action, in order to protect our precious ones, every single one of us has had to kill. But you learn to move on. You mourn your loses, but you keep moving for the sake of your loved ones. And I think your friend was trying to teach you that as well. You may not have had a solid family, so he tried to give you one through himself and then Amy and Dougless tried as well. We are all trying the same thing. Now you just have to learn to let all of us in."

Lily stared in pain. "Why do you even care? Why even take the time?"

Giotto smiled gently. "Because, you're family."

It was such a simple answer, and yet...Maybe she could finally let someone in? Stop worrying about betrayal and admit that she cared...

"Get up already weak little girl. I don't appreciate being made to stand out in the rain." Alaude removed his hand from her head and started heading back inside.

Lily stared, and stared, and stared at the group. Finally she burst out into loud sobs (not that she hadn't been crying before). She wailed for the first time in over a decade, when her blood family would comfort her. This time her new family was there for her.

One she wouldn't give up for the world.

* * *

**Songs Lily played (in my mind):**

**Lies, Haru Haru, Blue, Monster- Big Bang translated by Sungha Jung**

**Angry and Dead Again- Pirates of the Caribbean 4**

**Love on its Solitude- translated by Sungha Jung**

**So now you finally know what's been eating at the girl. Is this story over now? NO! WE still haven't met the main big bad guy! There is still more to go!**

**Hope you liked this chapter! Reviews are lovely~!**


	16. Ch 16 Winter Wonderland

**This wasn't actually a Christmas special considering I was working on it back in September, but I adjusted and added new things so that it _could_ be considered one. This will not, however, be moved to it's own link like one of my other stories.**

**I want to say a special thanks to: Kildosad, YuujouKami, anna the viking XD, Mouse Maestro, xxtoushirou, Alexandria Voulturi, Crossroader32, ShinigamiinPeru, Ri-chan, Riolutae, KuroHi91, SkittlesKat, and Guests for reviewing! Even with all the stress and other things happening in my life, your review inspired me to keep going! Also a thanks to everyone who has continued to support this story despite the long waiting in between!**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 16 Winter Wonderland

The seven men though that the moment they returned to their home, that there would be a tearful reunion with the two women folk who had remained inside. However it went something more like…

A dress popped out of nowhere and was shoved into the raven woman's face.

"Look! Now that you're all nicey-nicey now, we can put you in a dress!" Nina cheered.

"Dammit Nina! I'll kill you!" And Lily flew off the handle.

Asari laughed. "It's great that everyone is so lively again."

G sighed. "And here I thought that we had gained another sane member."

Giotto chuckled genially and watched as the younger girl continued to try to pummel the older woman.

"I'm glad," Elena said softly beside them, "that you could take away so many shadows from her eyes. They're not all gone, but at least she can actually try living now."

The blond male nodded sagely. "As am I. Though," he chuckled again, "I'm curious how this will affect our relationships."

Lily sighed heavily and trudged back over, glancing up with the group with an embarrassed and shifty expression while playing with her fingers. "Um…If you don't mind," Lily said hesitantly, feeling more shy than usual with the loss of her walls, "I'd like to try playing all of you a few songs."

Elena smiled brightly. "We'd be more than happy to hear them."

The raven smiled a little. "I want to play the last song my brother sang to me first through. He was-…he _is_ the reason I keep playing. It was how I could remember him without seeing anything horrible."

Primo nodded. "Go ahead."

Lily picked up her guitar and fingered the strings lightly, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes before playing. She took a hesitant breath and sang to the tune she had fingered a thousand times without ever actually playing. For the very first time since her brother sang it to her in the back of the van while they waited out their fates, she actually felt safe and sound*. Sometime after the first chorus, tears stared making their way down the young woman's face, but no one stopped her. It was as if they were all able to sense that this song brought the last bit of closure to the raven.

Lily opened her eyes as she neared the end of the song and could almost swear that she saw the shadowy form of her brother. She smiled slightly. She watched the shadow smile sadly, yet happily in return and wave goodbye.

As soon as the song ended she launched straight into another song, one that definitely had a happier tune. The rest of the day was filled with more smiles and laughter. The group even managed to get the girl to open her stack of presents, each one earning a hug and a whispered thank you.

For the first time in ten years, she had a _happy_ birthday.

* * *

Flip. Scribble, scribble. Flip…Flip.

"Say, Lily…" Lampo spoke up, watching along with the others as Lily scanned her files and scribbled something else on another piece of paper every now and then.

"What?" The girl questioned, not bothering to look up.

"Can you really read that fast?" The green haired boy questioned.

Flip, flip, flip. "Technically we don't actually _read_. Our brain gathers visual data that is recorded and organized by its shape, the processed into a set of thoughts and other data that is translated into what we know as language which is just an organized set of sounds that we adhere by." When there was no response, Lily sighed and sent the confused group a pointed look. "Yes, I can read that fast."

The girl went straight back to her files, frowning a bit at something she read and scribbled furiously on the other piece of paper until it was snatched from her.

"What _are_ you writing?" Daemon muttered as he examined the parchment. "Is this some new language?"

"No," Lily swiftly grabbed the paper and started scribbling again, "it's not. It's shorthand in English. I can write more notes in a shorter length of time doing this. It's very handy when your professor is lecturing at the speed of light with minimal breaths and breaks in between. This isn't what should be here," she muttered, returning to her documents.

"Liiiittllee Fllooooowwerr~!" Nina whined. "You're supposed to be all smiles, smiles now!"

Lily sent her knife flying at the woman only to click her tongue when it missed. "First of all, people don't just change their personalities overnight. Second of all, even if I can actually admit I like these people, does _not_ mean I'm going to go all air-headed fan-girl on them. I'd rather get run over by an elephant. Who the heck wrote this report!"

"I think Marco did," G answered.

Lily frowned. "No, Marco applies more pressure to the bottom curvatures of his letters. Her also spirals his last period whereas this person circles. In fact…I don't recognize this person's handwriting at all."

"You can recognize people though their handwriting?" Lampo inquired incredulously.

"I can also tell what mood, personality, overall height and weight, as well as class and preference they are. I took a few forensic courses. Now be quiet for a minute." Lily glared at the page intensely. "This person is slightly bigger than the average Italian, broad shouldered, indicated by the leverage and creases made into the paper where he held it down. Left handed, by the looks of it, and he was trying to imitate a right handed person through the awkward angle of his strokes. He was nervous when he wrote this up, shown by the hesitation in the vowels or the extra bleeding of the ink at the beginning and middle of each sentence."

"It's creepy that you know all of that," Lampo shuddered, but shut up when he received a quick pointed glare.

"There are only five people working under you who are left-handed, three of which have been deployed for two years now and another who has been with you since nearly the beginning and I don't question his loyalty. The last one Kallen Arsov, implying a Russian heritage, but clearly of English decent. Joined a little over a year ago…What the _heck_ are you doing with a spy among your ranks for so- Why are you looking at me like that?" The raven's tirade halted in a second when she caught sight of the blond boss's contemplative stare.

"Did you know…" Giotto said slowly, stroking his chin. "You squint a little when you explain something?"

Lily deadpanned and nearly fell out of her chair.

The blond smiled and continued before the girl could blow up. "I am already aware of Kallen. His true name is Draco and he works for a family we've been having a few disputes with from southern England. Earlier I just wanted to test you, but I let it go in favor of seeing more of your abilities once I was sure I could trust you well enough."

"Headache~," the young girl whined, rubbing her temples with a brow twitching in annoyance. She sighed and looked up. "Hey, where did Nina go?"

"She muttered something about heartless girls and left," Asari chipped in.

"Oh, then I don't care." Lily returned to her files. Her head snapped up. "Wait. Is that snow outside?"

"Hm?" The sky guardian glanced out one of the windows. "Yes, it is. We were hit pretty hard last night. I thought someone mentioned something during din-…ner…Where did Lily go?"

The grouped looked around, noticing their missing companion.

"Do any of you know the reason as to why Lily was running away from the dining room?" Elena asked with a bright smile and threatening tone.

"Nufufufu, I assure you that we have as much of an idea as you do my dear," Daemon assured.

"Perhaps we should follow and see what troubles the girl so," Knuckles suggested.

The others agreed and trouped out of the room in search of their female companion. They didn't have to search far. The moment they started to pass the front entry, they heard a cheer and looked outside just in time to see Lily dive into the sea of white covering the grounds.

Lily giggled happily, like a little school girl. "I _love_ the snow!"

"Lily! Come back inside and put on something warmer!" G scolded.

"You'll never catch me alive! Ahahahahaha!" The raven cackled maniacally and dove out of sight.

A competitive gleam flashed across Alaude's eyes. "Oh? Is that a challenge?"

"It seems that the little flower is in need of having a few of its petals plucked," Daemon agreed mischievously.

"Oh no," G muttered.

Splat! Splat! Splat!

While Giotto and G merely leaned to the side to avoid a sudden barrage of white balls, Alaude and Daemon blocked, and Lampo keeled over with a snowball to the face.

Asari laughed. "We didn't see that one coming!"

Alaude and Daemon jumped into the battlefield and started searching for the girl, all the while keeping an eye out for snow ammo.

"This is _my_ element boys," Lily's voice rang out. "I can guarantee that I have the upper hand here."

Daemon smirked. "Advantage or not, I'll still be able to find you quite easily."

"Are you sure?"

SPLAT!

Laughter rang out due to the snowball clinging off the spikier part of Daemon's head, even Alaude smirked.

Lily cackled again, her laughter ringing from a direction that wasn't possible to hit the illusionist from behind. "You still think you can find me?"

Giotto chuckled. "It seems we have a game to complete. Let's lend our other two elements a hand, yes?"

The sky, rain, lightening and storm guardians (G dragging Lampo along with) jumped into the fray as well, leaving Elena and Knuckles behind.

"Banzai!" Lily popped up and threw a barrage of snowballs before ducking back down again.

However, by the time G and Asari made it over to where she was last seen, the raven had disappeared and popped up on the other side of the field.

"How is she doing that?" Lampo exclaimed as Lily popped up from yet another location and pelted the poor boy.

"Ah! Look!" Giotto kicked aside some snow to reveal a well-structured tunnel. Peering in, the group saw that the ends branched out different directions.

"She's created a systems of tunnels right under out feet," Alaude observed. He smirked. This girl was better than he gave credit for.

"Knowing that won't do anything for you! I built it like a maze!"

Splat! Splat!

"She's on the roof!" G exclaimed. He smirked and pulled out his bow, lining up a snowball and firing.

However it went right through the girl.

"Oh? He illusions are much better," Giotto chirped.

"This isn't the time to praise the enemy," Daemon growled, still irritated with the fact that he had been successfully hit.

"Don't let her lure you to the forest," Alaude commanded. "She has an even higher advantage there. I've seen her train and inspected her course, she knows this forest better than the rest of us."

"Boo~! You're no fun Alaude! And I had quite a few fun traps set out too!" Lily pouted. "No matter. I had already taken that into my calculations."

"Calculations?" Asari questioned.

"That's right!" Lily's voice came from yet another direction. "I have analyzed your strengths, abilities, psychology, and patterns. With that in mind, I've carried out numerous simulations. You movements and the results have gone according to my calculations so far."

Daemon narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Did I not tell you I was a strategist?" The girl reminded the group. "The moment G tried to make me come back inside, I started planning for a fight. I've taken into consideration all the variables and variations to your system of attack, and have a counter attack ready! Granted, Alaude alone throws off about 60 percent of my calculations because he's so strong and Giotto throws off another 30 percent since I've never seen him fight, but in exchange I take into account your behaviors and what I do know of the rest of the group. I now have a plan that has a 93 percent chance of defeating you! Want to test that out?"

Giotto smiled. "You heard her. Charge."

* * *

Lily rolled across the ground laughing, just barely avoiding death from Alaude thanks to a good-natured Giotto and Knuckles. "I can't believe I won! That was so much fun! But- hahaha, you should have seen your faces when you fell into that tree well and I dumped snow on top of you! Hahaha! That was so funny! Hahahahaha! I think I'm gonna die from laughter!"

"She managed to overtake all of you very well," Elena agreed.

"Best of all, it all went according to my plan!" Lily added cheerily. "It's always great to know that my strategic mind isn't weakening from all of those emotional happenings. By the way, why are you here Alaude? After my birthday a couple weeks ago, you left and I hadn't seen hide nor tail until today."

"Reports," the inspector grunted, obviously still irritated, but Lily got the message.

"Perhaps we should use all our extra cheer and energy to go out and find a Christmas tree," Primo suggested.

"Pass." Lily deadpanned.

G cocked an eyebrow at the girl's sudden attitude flip. "And why is that?"

"I don't follow the pagan rituals most others choose to use this time of year," Lily informed the group blandly..

"What do you mean?" Asari inquired.

"The Christmas tree actually stems from the pagan ritual of brining in an evergreen tree to sacrifice to their god Mitra to pray for another year of fruitful harvests. Then Christians took over the idea and applied it to their own religion and holiday. Other places used parts of trees or hung candles or fruit on trees as well though around this time of year."

"…You really do squint when you're explaining something," G chuckled.

Lily's eye twitched. "I'm going to ignore that. In any case, Christmas from where I come from is _way_ to commercialized. There's too much pressure to go out and buy gifts for everyone you know, even if you don't even like them that much. And then you have to think about what the person likes and what they won't be getting on their own time. You also have to take into consideration how much that person spent on you, if at all, because you don't want to get them something cheap if they got you an expensive gift, but you don't want to overpay or look like you're trying to show them up either. Bleh. It's just a mess."

"But Christmas is meant to be time for friends and family," Knuckles disputed. "It's a time to share with the people you care about and who care about you. When you gift, it's supposed to be a way to show your appreciation for their companionship, not to upstage them."

"And that's why the Vongola don't hold or go to any balls until new year's," Giotto finished with a warm smile. "Christmas is a time for _family_ and that's how we are going to keep it. Why don't you give our little celebration a chance?"

Lily gazed into the sky guardian's warm orange eyes and slapped a hand over her face. She had been successfully conned and guilt tripped into celebrating Christmas with the Vongola First Generation. "Fine. _Fine_. Just stop with the weighing down my conscience look."

"What _ever_ do you mean?" The blond asked innocently.

"Uuugh," the raven dragged her hand down her face.

Great. Just great.

* * *

After an…eventful trip to find a nicely sized tree to fit their grand hall, the men and Elena proceeded to banish Lily from the room, telling her to go help the cooks until they were done (Lily grumbling all the way).

While waiting for her holiday treats to finish cooking several hours later, she found herself being dragged away by the cheery sky guardian. But, he didn't take her back to the grand hall…

"Velato!" Giotto pulled his hand off the younger girl's eyes. [Italian equivalent to voila]

Lily's breath hitched.

Before her stood a smaller tree, seated in front of the window of the sitting room, the branches were adorned with candles and handcrafted ornaments. The fireplace was going with garland lining the top and sides with candles and bows littering the piney pile.

She had seen many Christmas trees, how could she not with the holiday so widely advertised. But…This one was just…beautiful.

Sniffle.

"Ah! We made her cry!" Lampo shouted in disbelief.

"No, I'm not!" Lily denied, turning her back to the group. "I'm not crying! Really, I'm not! The candlelight must have damaged your eyes from staring too long! I'm going to go check on my desserts!"

The group laughed lightly as they watched the girl run out of the room. The rest of the night was spent teasing the girl and trying to admit that she had cried tears of happiness due to their amazing work.

With Christmas only a few days away, they were sure to celebrate a happy holiday this year.

* * *

**I hoped you liked it! Can anyone guess the song that inspired the first section of this chapter? The second was whatever song made you happy, but the first was more specific.**

**Reviews are lovely~!**


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